Swedish Match Tour rankings

Going into the final event of the 2002-3 season

Jesper Radich’s win at Match Race Germany, his third on Swedish Match Tour 2002/2003, moved the Danish helmsman into first place on the Rankings with one event, the Swedish Match Cup, 30 June-6 July in Marstrand, Sweden, remaining.

However, with all of the top eight skippers on the Rankings scheduled to compete at next week’s Swedish Match Cup, Radich will have his work cut out for him if he hopes to hold aloft the Wedgwood-crafted Swedish Match Tour Trophy on the balcony of Marstrand’s Society House, and walk off with the $US60,000 first prize check.

In addition to Match Race Germany, which he also won last year, Radich was victorious at the Bermuda Gold Cup and ACI HTmobile Cup, on an up-and-down year on the world’s premier professional sailing series, as three finishes outside of the top eight, resulting in no Rankings points, have balanced his successes.

In second place on the current Rankings is Radich’s countryman Jes Gram-Hansen of Team Victory Lane, whose eight month reign as the Rankings leader was ended by the skipper currently sitting in third place, Australian James Spithill, former helmsman for the OneWorld Challenge.

While Radich and Spithill have gotten their points in bunches, Spithill having won the year’s first event the Trombini Match Race and then returning from competing at the America’s Cup challenger series by posting a third place finish at the Congressional Cup and back-to-back runner-up results, at the Toscana Elba Cup – Trofeo Locman and ACI HTmobile Cup, Gram-Hansen has been consistent and methodical in his sailing all year, gaining points at each event.

However, as a result of the Swedish Match Tour’s Rankings formula Gram-Hansen will be forced to 'drop' points as the final Rankings count a skipper’s best seven-of-nine finishes, while Radich and Spithill will be able to sit on their current point totals, having either two zero scores in their total (in Radich’s case) or having missed two events (in Spithill’s case).

For Gram-Hansen and Spithill to return to the roost they have each previously held this year, they will need to dominate in Marstrand and hope Radich is off his game.

Beyond the top three, there is still plenty of prize money at stake and American Ed Baird’s third place finish at Match Race Germany moved him from eighth to fourth place with 57 points, six ahead of Great Britain’s Chris Law of the “The Outlaws” who failed to score any points in Germany.

In sixth place, one point behind Law is Marstrand favorite and master of the DS 37, the boat used at the Swedish Match Cup, Magnus Holmberg. Holmberg, like Spithill, took a leave from the Swedish Match Tour to compete in the America’s Cup challenger series, but is back and in fine form, having won the Toscana Elba Cup – Trofeo Locman, and the 2002 Swedish Match Tour Champion would like nothing more than to win the regatta he helped to start while working for the Royal Gothernburg Yacht Club.

Three points behind Holmberg is Italian Paolo Cian of the Riviera di Rimini Sailing Team, former helmsman for the Mascalzone Latino challenge who has sailed well upon his return to the Swedish Match Tour. One point behind Cian is Poland’s Karol Jablonski, an aggressive match racer certain to be in the mix late in the week.

The only skipper in position to crack the Rankings is Sweden’s Mattias Rahm of Team Stena Bulk. Rahm, brother of Holmberg’s longtime tactician, Stefan, is also very familiar with the DS 37s and will no doubt come into the event primed to make a move.

The Swedish Match Tour awards points to the top eight finishers at each event, counting the accumulated best seven-of-nine finishes to determine the final Swedish Match Tour Rankings.

In addition to more than US$800,000 in individual event prize money, the Swedish Match Tour awards US$200,000 to the top eight sailors on the Swedish Match Tour, with the first-place skipper receiving US$60,000.

The Swedish Match Tour 2002/2003 Champion will be crowned following the year’s final event at the Swedish Match Cup prize giving ceremony on Sunday, July 6 on the island of Marstrand, Sweden.

SWEDISH MATCH TOUR 2002/2003 RANKINGS
Skipper Total
1.Jesper Radich, DEN/Team Radich 103
2.Jes Gram-Hansen, DEN/Team Victory Lane 88
3.James Spithill, AUS/Team Spithill 86
4.Ed Baird, USA/Team Musto 57
5.Chris Law, GBR/”The Outlaws” 51
6.Magnus Holmberg, SWE/Team Holmberg 50
7.Paolo Cian, ITA/Riviera di Rimini Sailing Team 47
8.Karol Jablonski, POL/Jablonski Sailing Team 46
9.Ken Read, USA/Saucony Racing 35
10.Mattias Rahm, SWE/Team Stena Bulk 32
11.Gavin Brady, NZ/Team Beau Geste 28
12.Luc Pillot, FRA/Team Pillot 26
13.Mikael Lindqvist, SWE/Team Lidqvist 20
14.Staffan Lindberg, SWE/Team Musto 19
15.Lars Nordbjaerg, DEN/Team Nordbjaerg 18
16.Henrik Jensen, SWE/Team Jensen 16
17.Peter Bromby, BER/Team Ace Group 15
=Peter Gilmour, AUS/Team Pizza La 15
19.Jochen Schumann, Alinghi Team 12
20.Andy Green, GBR/GBR Challenge 8
=Paula Lewin, BER/Team Ace Group 8
=Markus Weiser, Germany 8
23.Scott Dickson, NZ/Dickson Racing Team 4
=Bjorn Hansen, SWE/GOL Sailing Team 4
=Matteo Simoncelli, ITA/Team Simoncelli 4