Spithill tears away

A report from day one of the Latium Match Cup match racing

The first day of the Latium Match Cup belonged to James Spithill. The Luna Rossa helmsman posted five straight wins to top his group and secure his place in the quarter finals.

The Latium Match Cup, the 12th stage of 15 in the 2007 Tour, is being held in Fiumicino, 25 km’s West of Rome. At stake is US$270,000 (€200,000) in prize money, with US$74,000 going to the winner. The event is held in conjunction with the Civitavela Sail Show, a marine exhibition.

The 12 teams have been divided into two groups for Round Robin Racing in the first stage of the event. Just before midday racing got under way in a light westerly wind of 6-8 knots.

Group A completed their first three flights with Peter Gilmour, Ian Williams and Sebastien Col on two wins. Sten Mohr and Ian Ainslie on one win each and Jure Orel, in his first Tour event, yet to score.

Group B then took to the water as the sea breeze, know locally as the 'Ponentino', built to 12 knots. James Spithill attacked the day leaving all his opponents to wonder what they will have to do to beat him. Spithill said: “It’s great to be in Rome. Italy feels like a second home and I always seem to do well when I sail here. It’s also great racing with the guys again (referring to Joe Newton, Michele Ivaldi, Magnus Augustson, Andy Fethers).”

Magnus Holmberg slid into the Quarter Finals with three wins including victory against Paolo Cian following a close gybing duel down the last run. Holmberg credited the win to his spinnaker trimmers for getting downwind so quickly. “We struggled with boat speed to begin with but changed the set up and things got better. We were lucky to get three wins and a few lessons were learnt today,” said the Victory Challenge skipper.

The third place in the Round Robin went to Paolo Cian who chalked up three wins. “Today was a good day and we are happy to get through. We lost to Magnus as he had better speed downwind. The conditions today were great for Match Racing,” he said.

Mathieu Richard is fast becoming the repechage man after going down the same route in St Moritz last month: “Maybe it’s not too bad being in the repechage as you have more sailing and practice, though we did not plan to do it this way. We hope we can come back and make the Quarter Finals” he said. A high risk strategy indeed but there have been occasions at other Tour events when a fight through the repechage has spurred a team on to overall victory. Only time will tell.

Tomorrow Group A will complete their Round Robin and the bottom three will join Richard, Victor Lanier and Michael Hestbaek in the Repechage scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.

Results from Day 1

Group A
Ian Williams (GBR) 2-1
Sebastien Col (FRA) 2-1
Peter Gilmour (AUS) 2-1
Ian Ainslie (RSA) 1-2
Sten Mohr (DEN) 1-2
Jure Orel (SLO) 0-3

Round Robin A Flight Details
(Winners in bold)

Flight 1
M1 Col vs Orel
M2 Williams vs Gilmour
M3 Mohr vs Ainslie

Flight 2
M1 Orel vs Williams
M2 Ainslie vs Gilmour
M3 Mohr vs Col

Flight 3
M1 Gilmour vs Orel
M2 Ainslie vs Col
M3 Williams vs Mohr

Group B
James Spithill (AUS) 5-0
Magnus Holmberg (SWE) 3-2
Paolo Cian (ITA) 3-2
Mathieu Richard (FRA) 2-3
Victor Lanier (FRA) 1-4
Michael Hestbaek (DEN) 1-4

Round Robin B Flight Details
(Winners in bold)

Flight 1
M1 Hestbaek vs Richard
M2 Spithill vs Holmberg
M3 Cian vs Lanier

Flight 2
M1 Hestbaek vs Spithill
M2 Holmberg vs Cian
M3 Richard vs Lanier

Flight 3
M1 Heastbaek vs Cian
M2 Spithill vs Richard
M3 Lanier vs Holmberg

Flight 4
M1 Spithill vs Cian
M2 Lanier vs Hestbaek
M3 Richard vs Holmberg

Flight 5
M1 Lanier vs Spithill
M2 Holmberg vs Hestbaek
M3 Cian vs Richard