Skippers at the press conference, and on the big screen, in Nice, 17th November. Image copyright Frank Socha.
by Stephanie Nadin
The final race of Round Robin 2 didn't take place today between Emirates Team New Zealand and Synergy because of the lack of wind. The second step of the Louis Vuitton Trophy – Nice is now over.
The semi-finals will start on Thursday in the “Baie des Anges”.
Two groups will now fight in the semi-finals: group A (Emirates Team New Zealand, Synergy, TeamOrigin and Azzurra) and group B (BMW Oracle Racing, Artemis, ALL4ONE and TFS PagesJaunes).
In group A, Emirates Team New Zealand (ranked first after the two Round Robin) chose its opponent within the other three semi-finalists of this Louis Vuitton Trophy. The Kiwis decided to race against the Russian team Synergy, so TeamOrigin and Azzurra will race the other semi-final.
Those semi-finals will be raced in best of three matches Thursday and Friday. The final and « petite finale » will take place during the week-end.
The other four teams in group B, ranked 5th to 8th, will race in knock-out matches to decide the final ranking for the four last spots. BMW Oracle Racing, 5th in the Round Robin (that is to say first of group B), chose to race against TFS PagesJaunes.
Artemis will then race ALL4ONE as a consequence. The matches of this second group will be raced on a knock-out format. The winners of these group B semi-finals will then race on Friday for the 5th or 6th places, and the losers will race for the 7th and 8th places.
ALL4ONE and Artemis already raced two times together, with one point for each team. This third match will be the « battle royale » to quote Paul Cayard on board Artemis.
Jochen Schümann, ALL4ONE Skipper: « ALL4ONE is a young group, and we consolidated as a team. We had close matches in Round Robin 2, and we are looking forward to tight racing in the semi-finals. We are happy to race again with Artemis! »
Stephane Kandler, ALL4ONE CEO, adds: « these semi-finals are the opportunity for us to go up to the fifth place, and we find ourselves in the same group as BMW Oracle Racing and Artemis. It is important for us to confirm our improvements that we saw in Round Robin 2. »
Races programme for 19/11/09
Team Origin vs Azzurra
TFS-PagesJaunes vs BMW Oracle Racing
Synergy Russian Sailing Team vs Emirates Team New Zealand
Artemis vs ALL4ONE
Final Round Robin standings
1. Emirates Team New Zealand (9-1) 6 points
2. Synergy Russia Sailing Team (6-4) 4.5 points
3. Azzurra (7-4) 4.5 points
4. TeamOrigin (8-3) 4.5 points
5. BMW Oracle Racing (4-7) 3 points
6. Artemis (5-6) 3 points
7. All4One (3-8) 2 points
8. TFS – PagesJaunes (1-10) 0.5 points
ALL4ONE
Louis Vuitton Trophy
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