Adam Minoprio lost his second round match to Paolo Cian on day one of the Korea Match Cup 2009, Gyeonggi-do, Korea, 3rf June 2009. Image copyright Gareth Cooke/Subzero Images.
by David Swete
After competing in the Germany Match Cup only two days ago, we have flown half way around the world and were straight back into competition today, with the opening day of the Korea Match Cup World Tour Event where we place 3rd last year.
Match racing is relatively new to Korea and with the inaugural event being such a big success last year, there has been a lot of development here and the racing area is very impressive. The Korea Match Cup is held in conjunction with the Korea International Boat Show, which boasts products from many top marine companies from Asia and is expected to draw crowds upwards of 400,000, so understandably there is a hive of activity surrounding this event.
Following a festive opening ceremony we went straight into a two hour practice session before our opening two races. Our first race was a tough one, reigning Korea Match Cup Champion and world number 1 Sebastian Col is definitely keen to defend his title, however after an average pre-start we came back to win comfortably. Col lead us off the line but by the first top mark we had fought back when the Frenchman tacked in front of us and failed to complete his tack. He was handed a red flag penalty which he had to take immediately and from then on we extended to take a good win.
Our second race was against the highly regarded Italian Paolo Cian. We dominated the pre-start and had a great advantage off the start line, however an error at the top mark when we gybed into what we thought was better wind pressure, ultimately cost us the race. It was a shame to lose this race after such a good start, but it highlights how tricky the conditions are here and we will have to be right on top of our game to do well at this event.
The round robin action will continue tomorrow and we hoping to gain some of the form we had here last year. For all media coverage on this event please visit www.worldmatchracingtour.com .
BlackMatch would like to again thank their sponsors FedEx Express and Line 7 New Zealand. For this regatta we have brand new crew gear supplied by Ross Munro from Line 7, it looks amazing and we would like to say a special thank you to Ross and his team. We would also like to thank our yacht club the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and Emirates Team New Zealand, as without their support we would not have this opportunity.
Results after four flights
Ben Ainslie (GBR) Team Origin 2-0
Ian Williams (GBR) Bahrain Team Pindar 2-0
Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing 2-0
Sebastien Col (FRA) French Team/K-Challenge 1-1
Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team 1-1
Adam Minoprio (NZL) ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing 1-1
Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Team Onboard 1-1
Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team 1-1
Paolo Cian (ITA) Team Shosholoza 1-1
Philippe Presti (FRA) French Match Racing Team 0-2
Laurie Jury (NZL) 0-2
Byeong Ki Park (KOR) 0-2
BlackMatch Racing
World Match Racing Tour
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