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Reuben Corbett, and his Black Sheep Racing crew of Brad Ferrand and Thomas Bentham, competing in the Sails of the White Nights ISAF Grade 1 match racing on the Neva River in St Petersburg, Russia. Image copyright Михаил Киреев - Michael Kireev.
by SailRaceWin
Kiwi Reuben Corbett and his Black Sheep Racing team of Brad Ferrand and Thomas Bentham today won the ISAF Grade 1 Sails of the White Nights National Congress Palace Cup, defeating Synergy's Eugeniy Neugodnikov 2-0 in the finals.
Victory in this event qualifies the young Kiwi match racing team for the World Match Racing Tour's Stena Match Cup Sweden next month.
Corbett has recently enjoyed a meteoric rise in the match race rankings, moving from 52nd to 33rd in the 9th June ISAF open match race listings after winning a Grade 3 event in Tallinn, Estonia. On his way to winning in St Petersburg, today, Corbett defeated the otherwise unbeaten world #5, Damien Iehl (France) 2-0 in the semi-finals.
In another top international match racing Kiwi-Russian encounter, as with the Louis Vuitton Trophy in La Maddalena the previous weekend, Corbett followed with up, winning the finals over Synergy Russian Sailing Team's world #11 sailor Eugeniy Neugodnikov. Black Sheep Racing team's victory over their Russian opponents was a little more decisive than the previous weekend's scoreline, at 2-0.
Reuben Corbett and his team qualified locally for this event, placing fourth in the Grade 3 qualifier to gain entry to the Sails of the White Nights 2010. Conditions at the Sails of the White Nights event were very tough - ranging from calms to very breezy boat-breaking conditions, combined with strong currents on the Neva River - in the midst of the spectacular backdrop of St Petersburg.
Corbett now has a chance to emulate Emirates Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker's performance in Sweden in 2002, in what is now the World Match Racing Tour, by winning the Stena Match Cup at Marstrand, Sweden, next month.
Black Sheep Racing
Sails of the White Nights
