Coutts leaps in victorious

At second day of round robins at the Nations Cup match racing

The round robin continue for the qualification of the semi finals of the Nations Cup. So far 14 regattas have been contested out of the 30 scheduled.

The main contender of the morning regattas, without doubt, was Russell Coutts gaining three victories out of three regattas, beating his compatriots of Emirates Team New Zealand by 30 seconds. Coutts also beat the Malcalzone Latino team, which was still without Vasco Vascotto but with John Cuttler at the helm and, in the most spectacular regatta of the day, he beat the Toscana Challenge team captained by Roberto Ferrarese in a flying finish with barely a second's lead.

In the Italian derby between Toscana Challenge and Italian Challenger, Paolo Cian's team won: "It was a difficult regatta", said the Neapolitan helmsman, "characterised by a patchy wind but we managed to keep our concentration and calm needed to win".

Cian's winning streak also worked against Luna Rossa which lost the regatta on the last leg by just 5 seconds. In the next race, however, the Australian helmsman, James Spithill, brought the Luna Rossa team to victory against Mascalzone Latino, winning by a large margin.

Thus the provisional placings are as follows:
Italian Challenger 4-1
Luna Rossa 4-1
Russell Coutts 3-0
Mascalzone 1-4
Toscana Challenge 0-4

The regattas will resume tomorrow at midday with the match between Luna Rossa and Team Russell Coutts.