The list of skippers and crews includes many who have been on duty in Valencia at the America's Cup as well as the leaders in the World Tour and the top placed skippers in the ISAF world rankings. These may mean little at the end of this regatta - the standards are extremely high and there are bound to be changes.
Gavin BRADY (NZL) for instance, the helmsman of BMW Oracle Racing, is officially ranked # 102 in the world, a position that is certain to alter by next Monday. BRADY has brought with him four of his America's Cup team-mates, Sean CLARKSON, Morgan TRUBOVICH, Eric DOYLE and Ed SMYTH, and will be a hard act to beat.
The three leaders in the World Tour, Mathieu RICHARD (FRA) Paolo CIAN (ITA) and Ian WILLIAMS (GBR) will provide the bulk of the opposition. All of them have shown winning potential this season, along with Philippe PRESTI (FRA) who did duty as back-up helmsman to Luna Rossa's James SPITHILL.
Sebastien COL (FRA) was helmsman of the French America's Cup challenger, Areva, while Bjorn HANSEN (SWE) is the last event winner on the World Tour, taking the Match Cup Sweden in Marstrand. HANSEN, it was reported, displayed an outright mastery of the conditions, which were extreme by any
standard, reaching near gale force winds.
Alvaro MARINHO (POR) is the local skipper while Finland's Staffan LINDBERG is fresh from competing in the Star at the ISAF Sailing World Championships at nearby Cascais. Eugeny NEUGODNIKOV (RUS) finished sixth in this year's Congressional Cup.
The evergreen match racer, Peter GILMOUR and his PST Sailing Team, can always be relied on for a podium finish, and one must never underrate the
one woman skipper, Sally BARKOW, who finished second in the women's event that finished here yesterday.
ISAF Match Racing World Championship Standings
(After Stage 8)
|Pos||Skipper||Nation||ISAF World Match Race Ranking||Team||Pts|
|1||Mathieu RICHARD||FRA||2||Saba Sailing Team||78|
|2||Paolo CIAN||ITA||3||Team Viano Mercedes Benz||66|
|3||Ian WILLIAMS||GBR||1||Team Pindar||62|
|4||Bjorn HANSEN||SWE||9||Team Onico||49|
|5||Sébastien COL||FRA||4||Areva Challenge||47|
|6||Jesper BANK||DEN||15||United Internet Team Germany||45|
|8||Magnus HOLMBERG||SWE||99||Victory Challenge||40|
|Stage 1||Portugal Match Cup||Cascais, Portugal||18-23 July 2006|
|Stage 2||Danish Open||Copenhagen, Denmark||9-13 August 2006|
|Stage 3||St. Moritz Match Race||St Moritz, Switzerland||15-20 August 2006|
|Stage 4||Bermuda Gold Cup||Hamilton, Bermuda||10-15 October 2006|
|Stage 5||Allianz Cup||San Francisco, USA||24-29 October|
|Stage 6||Monsoon Cup||Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia||28 November-3 December 2006|
|Stage 7||Match Race Germany||Langenargen, Germany||23-28 May 2007|
|Stage 8||GKSS Match Race||Marstrand, Sweden||2-8 July 2007|
|Stage 9||Portugal Match Cup||Cascais, Portugal||24-25 July 2007|
|Stage 10||Danish Open||Copenhagen, Denmark||8-12 August 2007|
|Stage 11||St. Moritz Match Race||St Moritz, Switzerland||14-19 August 2007|
|Stage 12||Latium Match Cup||Fiumicino, Italy||11-16 September 2007|
|Stage 13||Locman Cup - Elba Island||Porto Azzurro, Elba Island, Italy||25-30 September 2007|
|Stage 14||Bermuda Gold Cup||Hamilton, Bermuda||9-14 October 2007|
|Stage 15||Brasil Sailing Cup||Angra dos Reis, Brazil||23-28 October 2007|
|Stage 16||Monsoon Cup||Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia||28 November-2 December 2007|
The World Match Racing Tour is an ISAF Special Event. Skippers earn points towards the World Championship at the nine events of the World Tour and the highest scoring skipper at the end of the season is the ISAF Match Racing World Champion.
The World Tour Partner and Official Car is BMW AG (Munich, Germany). World Tour sponsors include Sebago (Rockford, USA), the Official Footwear Supplier, Travel Places (West Sussex, Great Britain), the Official Travel Partner and Wedgwood (Cheshire, Great Britain) the Official Trophy Supplier.
For more information on the World Match Racing Tour, its competitors and events, visit the official World Tour website - www.WorldMatchRacingTour.com. World Match Racing Tour television programmes may be viewed on demand by clicking on the television icon on the home page of the website.
For all the news on the World Match Racing Tour CLICK HERE.