France claim another slot

Mathieu Richard has secured his slot in the JPMorgan Asset Management Winter Challenge Final

Mathieu Richard of France secured his place in the final of the JPMorgan Asset Management Winter Match Race Challenge following the weekend's match racing at Queen Mary Reservoir, Staines on 19-20 February.

With four competitors in the top 17 of the World Match Race rankings, competition was fierce at the front of the fleet.

On Saturday, teams were forced to spend the morning on shore due to the lack of wind but by mid afternoon there was just enough to start the round robin matches.

The breeze built on Sunday enabling the round robin to be completed. After beating Mathieu Richard, Christian Hamilton (GBR) proceeded to take another unexpected victory against Britain's highest ranked match racer, Ian Williams, who was struggling to find his form.

Both Mark Campbell-James and Johnie Berntsson of Sweden went into the day by winning their matches and Denmark's Lars Nordbjerg was looking good. Before the final flight of the day four teams were in contention for a slot in the finals; however, Mark Campbell-James won the round robin with Mathieu Richard second.

Due to the delayed start on Saturday there was only time to run first and second place, third and fourth place and fifth and sixth place sail offs. The third and fourth place sail off between Nordbjerg and Berntsson proved to be an exciting match with both teams winning a race, leaving a close deciding match with Berntsson taking the win.

Richard and Campbell James squared up for the final but Campbell James and his team were dominated by Richard who won the series and a berth in the Final due to be held on 10-12 March.

Results:

1-Mathieu Richard, Greg Evrard, Olivier Herledant and Mathieu Renault (FRA)
2-Mark Campbell-James, Dave Mason, Andrew Yates and Andy Clark (GBR)
3-Johnie Berntsson, Johan Barne, Johan Backman and Bjorn Lundgren (SWE)
4-Lars Nordbjerg, Anton Wester, Rasmus Rozentals and Rasmus Winston DEN)
5-Christian Hamilton (GBR)
6-Ian Williams (GBR)
7-Jamie Reid (GBR)
8-Antti Luhta (FIN)
9-Gemma Farrell (GBR)