Even stephens

Playing field still level at the Swedish Match Cup in Marstrand despite torrential rain

Australian James Spithill won the round robin in group 1 in the Swedish Match Cup by the smallest possible margin - only half a point ahead of three of the competition.

Magnus Holmberg just made it but his fate was not decided until the last match, such is the tightness of the racing here at the Swedish Match Cup in Marstrand. The loser today was American Ed Baird who has now been eliminated having scored just two
wins out of seven possible under the persistent rain here in Marstrand.

"It was really wet but at least we had some wind," commented James Spithill after the racing today. Unusually in one race against his former OneWorld boss Peter Gilmour Spithill only scored half a point. "We collided with Peter and the umpires thought we had caused so much damage that they took away half a point," explained the young Australian. "I myself thought that Peter helped quite a lot to make the collision."

"No, we were just out enjoying some quiet sailing!" Gilmour countered innocently smiling at the same time giving the race committee some criticism: "I thought there was not enough space between the lee mark and the starting line, which complicated things quite unnecessarily.

"I thought the conditions were fair," countered British skipper Chris Law, who was today beaten by Andy Beadsworth.

Magnus Holmberg had a really tough day but there were some bright spots, or as he puts it himself; "it feels as if the end was unnecessarily dramatic. We have alternated some really good races with real failures. We really have to perform much better and more evenly from now on. We’ll have to do some assessing tonight."

The next step in the Swedish Match Cup is group 1 meeting group 2 in a knock-out series to qualify for the quarterfinals, except for Swede Mattias Rahm and James Spithill, who having won their respective groups in the Round Robins have already
qualified for the semis.

For Magnus Holmberg’s part as number seven in his group it means meeting number 2 in the other group Jesper Radich, current leader of the Swedish Match Tour and second in the world, in a best of three matches.

"Radich has done very well this spring and his last win was in Croatia, where we beat him when we met. We have beaten him more times than he has beaten us, so we have a good chance of doing it again," Holmberg concluded.

Results in the Swedish Match Cup round robin group 1, open class:
1 James Spithill AUS 4.5-2
2 Chris Law GBR 4-3
3 Peter Gilmour AUS 4-3
4 Peter Holmberg USVI 4-3
5 Karol Jablonski POL 3-4
6 Andy Beadsworth GBR 3-4
7 Magnus Holmberg GKSS, SWE 3-4
8 Ed Baird USA 2-5