Anxious start to last ditch Monsoon match races
Monsoon Cup match racers, while waiting for the sea breeze to settle,
anxiously eyed off their competition before the start of the last six
flights of the quarter final qualification.
For several of the great names in international match racing, every bit of
energy, concentration and skill they could muster will be needed to get them
through the next few hours of matches. Mathieu Richard, Ian Williams,
Sebastien Col and Magnus Holmberg are all on the edge. Each of them have
tough competition to face today; there will no easy matches.
On the other end of the point score Keith Swinton's Black Swan Racing and
Nurul Ain bt. Md Isa's Perak Sailing Team are out of contention for the
quarter finals. Both teams have sailed incredibly hard and well in the final
event of the World Match Racing Tour.
In the first match of the day Ian Williams (Bahrain Team Pindar) and
Sebastien Col (K-Challenge) went into the match with an equal number of wins
from the previous days racing. Williams beat Col after a tactically
challenging race in a soft, shifty breeze. It was only in the last leg of
the course that Williams caught a soft puff on the left-hand shore and lead
Col to the finish by five boat lengths.
Third on the World Match Racing Tour leader board, but with only two match
wins so far, Mathieu Richard has been on the back foot and fighting for
survival in the Monsoon Cup. Magnus Holmberg has had a better event with
four wins, but with the awarding of a penalty against him for Level C damage
to Williams' boat in the re-sail match yesterday, he went into their match
with three wins on the score board. Richard came out on top of this match to
give him a total of three wins, still below the mark for quarter final
qualification.
The big question this morning was; could Dato' Peter Gilmour and his Yanmar
Racing Team slip into the top eight with a solid round of match performances
today ? He faced ISAF Sailor of the Year Ben Ainslie, a relative newcomer to
the match racing circuit, who came into the match with four wins. Gilmour
dominated with some smart sailing to win the match and move up the
scoreboard with four wins.
Ainslie then immediately went into his next match, this time against
Monsoon Cup round robin leader, Paolo Cian. The Bahrain Team Pindar needed
to win this match to secure their quarter final berth. Cian challenged them
every moment of the match, but Ainslie took the lead to finish clearly ahead
of Cain to be one place behind Cian on the pointscore.
At the mid-way point of the day Cian and Adam Minoprio lead the pointscore
on seven wins each and have secured their quarter final berth. Torvar Mirsky
with six wins also looks secure. Williams, Ainslie and Gilmour are all
placed in a strong position to qualify for the quarter finals with five wins
each.
It is now down to Col, Richard, Holmberg and Berntsson to fight it out for
the remaining quarter final berths. Their battles will be the highlight of
this afternoon's racing as the final flights of the round robin stage
continue.
Check out the live vision on www.sail.tv. Live updates on today's matches
will be available on www.monsooncup.com.my
Asia's ESPN Star Sport telecast each night at 10.30pm highlights from the
day's racing. Other broadcasters showing race day reports and highlights
are: (check your local guide for times.):
Eurosport - Europe
Sky New Zealand - NZ
Showtime Arabia - Middle East (Dubai)
Setanta - UK/Ireland
SuperSports Network TV - Germany
Eurosport Asia - Pacific
American 1 Sports TV - USA
Eurosport.com - International and China
Sports Max Caribe
Eurovision - Switzerland/U.K
BT Vision - UK
Viasat VOD - Europe
Al Jazeera - International
Moto TV - Egypt
Euro News - Europe
Watch the racing on the internet, http://www.sail.tv
http://www.monsooncup.com.my
TOP
|