Misty morning in St Moritz. Image copyright Ian Roman/WMRT.
by David Swete
Today was the opening day of the 2010 St Moritz World Match Racing Tour Event and with 4 wins from our 5 races, it was a great start for BlackMatch Racing. This event is the 6th leg of the World Tour and really marks the business end of the season. Held on a lake 1800 meters above sea level and with the Swiss Alps providing the back drop for the action on the water, it is without a doubt the most stunning event on the World Tour and also one of the trickiest.
"Tongue in action": Adam Minoprio's trademark concentration... Image copyright Ian Roman/WMRT.
With temparatures plummeting to zero degrees Celsius overnight, we were greeted with an eerie mist over the lake this morning, however without a cloud in the sky and with the sun shining it was an amazing day of sailing, although extremely shifty. We had decisive victories over Torvar Mirsky, Francesco Bruni, Johnnie Berntsson and local talent Eric Monin, while our loss came against Swede Bjorn Hansen, who also finished the day with only a single loss.
We have 6 races remaining in the round robin with the format seeing the top 7 teams progressing through to the next stages of the event, while the top qualifier proceeds directly through to the semi final. This provides a great incentive to finish the round robin on top and avoid the 6 boat quarterfinal, while the magic number looks to be 6 wins to make the final seven.
Spectators have an awesome view of the racing on St Moritzersee. Image copyright Ian Roman/WMRT.
We would again like to say a special thank you to our sponsors FedEx Express and Events Clothing/Line 7. Owen Rutter from Events Clothing has supplied us with new sailing gear this season, keeping the boys looking very sharp and also warm up here in the cold mountains. The ongoing support of our sponsors is helping make this opportunity possible for the BlackMatch boys. We would also like to thank Emirates Team New Zealand and Steinlager Pure.
BlackMatch Racing this week is Adam Minoprio, Tom Powrie, David Swete and Nick Blackman.
Round Robin standings after Day One in St Moritz
Minoprio (NZL) 4-1
Williams (GBR) 4-1
Hansen (SWE) 4-1
Ainslie (GBR) 3-2
Richard (FRA) 3-2
Pace (FRA) 3-2
Mirksy (AUS) 2-3
Iehl (FRA) 2-3
Bruni (ITA) 2-3
Monnin (SUI) 2-3
Berntsson (SWE) 1-4
Clerc (SUI) 0-5
BlackMatch Racing
World Match Racing Tour
