Aggressive Racing Decides Quaterfinalists in St Moritz

Ian Williams, Gerry Mitchell, Richard Sydenham and Mark Nicholls sail the Blu26 on St Moritzersee. Image copyright Loris von Siebenthal/www.myimage.ch

by Kirsten Bollinger

Three more quarterfinalists were decided Thursday morning in St Moritz, after the completion of Round Robin B. Going into the final flight, five of the six teams still had a chance to qualify for the quarterfinals directly without having to sail in the repechage.

In the final Flight of the round an aggressive pre-start between long time and trans-Tasman rivals Torvar Mirsky (AUS) and Adam Minoprio (NZL) saw both teams even off the start but by the top mark Adam had a comfortable lead. By the second top mark this lead had diminished with the Aussies hot on their tail.

Minoprio was forced to gybe to stay clear of Ian Williams who at the time was racing Paolo Cian. “We had to do two more gybes to cover Torvar, which meant that by the time these were completed we were dead in the water,” explained Adam. Adam then went on to win the race but not without some exciting match racing which saw Torvar get two penalties.

Jes Gram Hansen won his match against Peter Wibroe and Ian Williams defeated Paolo Cian after a tight match that went down the final few metre’s of the race giving Gram Hansen and Williams the three points they needed to head straight to the Quarterfinals.


The Blu26 in Match Race St Moritz 2008. Image copyright Loris von Siebenthal/www.myimage.ch

The six teams that have qualified for the quarterfinals so far are Eric Monnin (SUI), Mathieu Richard (FRA), Sebastien Col (FRA), Ian Williams (GBR), Adam Minoprio (NZL) and Jes Gram Hansen (DEN). The remaining two teams will be decided in a repechage round robin being completed Thursday afternoon.

World Match Racing Tour