Mirsky Racing Team at the Korea Match Cup. Image copyright Ian Roman/Subzero Images.
by Kinley Fowler
The final day of Korea Match Cup was not MRT's day, as the team bowed out of their finals dreams with French Match Racing Team's Mathieu Richard knocking them out with two straight wins.
The race committee were eager to race the semi finals before the Live TV broadcast came on, so racing began in unfavourable conditions.
The first race against Richard saw MRT dominate the prestart, before a big windshift forced both boats under the start line, and putting Richard in the lead. MRT managed to work their way back into the French Match Racing Team, but it wasn't enough and they went down one race.
The second race was in a completely different wind direction, with shifty winds plaguing the race course once again. MRT dominated the race, and held onto a substantial lead, however Richard followed their line on the final run, and managed to take advantage of a private gust which took them down to the finishing line, winning the quarterfinals by a mere seconds.
With their finals dreams dashed, MRT's luck didn't improve as they went down in two straight races to Sweden's Hansen Global Team skippered by Bjorn Hansen.
Although it is a disappointing end result, the team felt strong in all areas, and are confident that not much more could have been done to win their semi finals.
Next week the team are travelling to Portimao in Portugal for the 4th stage of this years Tour, the Portugal Match Cup. Last year they took out the title, so hopefully they will be able to recreate last years result, and gain some much needed World Tour points.
Korea Match Cup Final Standings:
1 Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team
2 Ian Williams (GBR) Team GAC Pindar
3 Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Gill Global Team
4 Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team
5 Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing
6 Francesco Bruni (ITA) Azzurra
7 Adam Minoprio (NZL) ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing
8 Bertrand Pacé (FRA) Aleph Sailing Team
9 Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team
10 Paolo Cian (ITA) Team Italia
11 Phil Robertson (NZL) WAKA Racing Team
12 Park GunWoo (KOR) Busan Match
Mirsky Racing Team
World Match Racing Tour
