Nippon Cup joins tour...

Swedish Match today announced the addition of the Nippon Cup, Japan, to the Swedish Match Tour

The Swedish Match Tour, the world's premier professional sailing series, has announced dates for its third year. It is growing to nine events, with the addition of the Nippon Cup in Hayama, Japan, 19-25 November, to its existing schedule.
The Nippon Cup has been an ISAF-rated grade one event since 1987 and is hosted by the Hayama Marina Yacht Club. The town of Hayama is well known as the origin of sailing in Japan. "We are excited to welcome the Nippon Cup to the Swedish Match Tour," said Pierre Tinnerholm, President, Swedish Match Grand Prix AB. "The addition of the Nippon Cup further strengthens the Swedish Match Tour and provides the Swedish Match Tour, its sponsors, and the competitors, valuable exposure in a key marketplace."

There has been a slight change to the Swedish Match Tour's event schedule, the Sun Microsystem's Australia Cup and Steinlager Line 7 Cup as well as the Match Race Lake Constance and ACI Cup of Croatia have switched their order of occurrence in 2003. The Sun Microsystems Australia Cup will now be held from 12-17 March, 2003 in Perth, Australia with the Steinlager Line 7 Cup to be held the next week, 19-24 March, in Auckland, New Zealand.

Additionally, the Match Race Lake Constance will now be held May 16-20, two weeks earlier than in the past, and will be followed six days later by the ACI Cup of Croatia, 26 May - 1 June.

The next event on the Swedish Match Tour is the Colorcraft Gold Cup in Hamilton, Bermuda, 14-21 October.

Schedule of events:

July 10-15, 2001 Trofeo Challenge Roberto Trombini Match Race Ravenna, Italy
Aug. 14-19, 2001 Danish Open 2001 Copenhagen, Denmark
Oct. 14-21, 2001 Colorcraft Gold Cup Hamilton, Bermuda
Nov. 19-25, 2001 Nippon Cup Hayama, Japan
March 12-17, 2002 Sun Microsystems Australia Cup Perth, Australia
March 19-24, 2002 Steinlager/ Line 7 Cup Auckland, New Zealand
May 16-20, 2002 Match Race Lake Constance Lake Constance, Germany
May 26-June 1, 2002 ACI Cup of Croatia Split, Croatia
July 1-7, 2002 Swedish Match Cup Marstrand, Sweden

About the Swedish Match Tour

The Swedish Match Tour is comprised of nine of the world's leading professional sailing events and is proving to be the ultimate battleground of sailing.

In addition to more than US$400,000 in individual event prize money, the Swedish Match Tour awards US$200,000 to the top eight sailors on the Tour, with the first-place skipper netting US$60,000.

The Swedish Match Tour produces 144 hours of television coverage reaching more than 267 million households worldwide.

Swedish Match Tour partners include Swedish Match, Octagon Marketing and the Match Race Association.