The Winning Team. Image copyright Subzero Images/WMRT.
by David Swete
An enthralling quarterfinal series against Ben Ainslie where all 5 matches were needed to decide the winner, saw us defeated 3-2 by arguably the Worlds best sailor, who then went on to win the regatta. We definitely had our chances to close the quarterfinal out, at one stage 2-1 up and on match point, however it was the Brit who kept a cool head, managing to come from behind with a penalty in the 4th match to take a win before delivering the knock out punch in the final race.
Following our disappointing loss in the quarterfinals, we then had a 5th-8th race off where we defeated fellow Kiwi Reuben Corbett first up, and then US Virgin Island's Taylor Canfield, to secure an almost satisfying 5th position.
Interestingly one of the major headlines this week was the failure of many of the teams in contention for the overall World Title. Most notable was the capitulation of current World Tour Leader Mathieu Richard, who failed to even qualify for the repechage and also Torvar Mirsky who after going through undefeated in the group stages, failed to capitalise on this, finishing a lowly 8th. Our 5th position has only improved our situation by 2 points on Richard while Ian Williams dramatic early exit sees him needing an absolute miracle to claim his 3rd World Title. The biggest mover is Ben Ainslie who is now well in contention, up into 3rd position and only trailing us by 2 points. The final event in Malaysia promises to be an absolute scorcher with Us and Ben in similar positions, needing a good result and only to beat Richard by a few places. Mathieu and his French Match Racing Team will be marked men at the Monsoon Cup and we are looking forward to the prospect of defending our World Title.
Black Match would like to congratulate Ben and his Team for their emphatic victory this week over Jesper Radich. We would also 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. The ongoing support of our sponsors is helping make this opportunity possible for the BlackMatch boys and we would also like to thank Emirates Team New Zealand and Steinlager Pure.
BlackMatch is Adam Minoprio, Tom Powrie, Nick Blackman and David Swete.
BlackMatch Racing
World Match Racing Tour
