Careanos beach. Image copyright Portimao Portugal Match Cup.
by Jill Campbell
Team Azzurra is once again ready to race on the international yachting scene. From Wednesday, Francesco Bruni and his crew composed by Matteo Auguadro, Thomas Burnham, Ben Durham and Pierluigi De Felice, will compete at the Portimão Portugal Match Cup 2010, Stage 4 of the leading professional sailing series World Match Racing Tour.
Portimão, dubbed Portugal’s ‘capital for sea sports’, is experienced in hosting top class international yachting events. The Portimão Portugal Match Cup will run from 22 to 27 of June and will include a series of round robin, quarters, semifinals and for the lucky few the finals. The twelve skippers will race on six identical Swedish Match 40 yachts, created by legendary Swedish designer Pelle Petterson, who designed and helmed Sweden’s Sverige challengers for the America’s Cup in 1977 and 1980.
The Tour is currently lead by French skipper Mathieu Richard (French Match Racing Team) with a 29 point lead over New Zealander Adam Minoprio (ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing), the former 2009 ISAF Match Racing World Champion. For Stage 4 of the Tour, eight out of the twelve skippers sit within the top ten of the official ISAF rankings. Francesco Bruni is tenth in the ISAF rankings and fifth in the World Match Racing Tour standings at 23 points, having competed in only two out of the three events staged so far (Match Race France and Korea Match Cup).
Francesco Bruni arrived in Portugal straight from Marseille where he competed at the Audi MedCup on board Matador finishing in second place: “I haven’t taken any breaks since the last WMRT event in South Korea and I am happy to be back on the Tour: not only is it a great training ground where I can race against top level skippers, but it is also a very fun and exciting circuit. The conditions in Portimão will probably be qu ite different from the ones in Korea, there will be a couple of new entries and we will race on different boats, so there are quite a few different variables at stake. We are ready to play and I am sure the guys of the Azzurra team will do a great job.”
As well as eight of the high profile ISAF World Match Racing Tour ‘card holders’ entered for Portugal Match Cup, there will be three wild card entries from Portugal, Spain and Russia. The Swede Mangus Holmberg (Victory Challenge), also returns to the 2010 WMRT after making his debut earlier in Stage 2 at Match Race Germany.
2010 ISAF World Match Racing Tour Standings
(After Stage 3 of 10)
1 Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team 65 Points
2 Adam Minoprio (NZL) BlackMatch Racing 39 Points
3 Ian Williams (GBR) Team GAC Pindar 30 Points
4 Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team 28 Points
5 Francesco Bruni (ITA) Azzurra 23 Points
6 Ben Ainslie (GBR) TEAMORIGIN 20 Points
6 Jesper Radich (SWE) Radich Racing Team 20 Points
8 Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing 18 Points
9 Paolo Cian (ITA) Team Italia 16 Points
10 Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Gill Global Team 15 Points
ISAF World Match Racing Tour Calendar
Match Race France, 6 - 11 April, Marseille, France
Match Race Germany, 19 – 24 May, Langenargen, Germany
Korea Match Cup, 8 – 13 June, Gyeonggi, South Korea
Portimão Portugal Match Cup, 22 – 27 June, Portimão, Portugal
Match Cup Sweden, 5 – 11 July, Marstrand, Sweden
St Moritz Match Race, 31 Aug – 5 Sept, St Moritz, Switzerland
Danish Open, 8 – 12 Sept, Bornholm, Denmark
Argo Group Gold Cup, 4 – 10 Oct, Hamilton, Bermuda
Qingdao Match Cup, 19 – 24 Oct, Qingdao, China
Monsoon Cup, 30 Nov – 5 Dec, Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia
Azzurra
World Match Racing Tour
