Gram-Hansen and Coutts through

At Quarter Finals of the Swedish Match Cup in Marstrand

Jes Gram-Hansen (right) and his Victory Lane match race team and Russell Coutts of the Alinghi Team persevered through a tough 'sail-in' process at the Swedish Match Tour's final event, the Swedish Match Cup, and are now qualified to compete in tomorrow's quarterfinal round robin.

"This was one of those days where the small things went our way," said a relieved Gram-Hansen. "I'm with a good young team and we have a lot of fun."

By advancing to the quarterfinals Gram-Hansen, currently ranked third on the Swedish Match Tour 2001/2 rankings, kept alive his hopes of unseating Sweden's Magnus Holmberg of Team SeaLife who is in second place, just five points ahead of the Dane.

In today's action, Gram-Hansen and Coutts battled both their opponents and strong, shifty winds this afternoon to advance 3-1, past Jesper Bank of the Victory Challenge and Poland's Karol Jablonski and his MK Café team, respectively.

In the first flight of the 'Quartfinals Sail-In', Bank defeated Gram-Hansen and Coutts dispatched Jablonski. Recognising the fact that it was 'gut-check' time, the amateurs answered in Flight 2.

Gram-Hansen induced a penalty on Bank and after a jibing contest during which Bank pushed Gram-Hansen past the pin, the Victory Lane amateurs recovered just in time to cross the line before the America's Cuppers could complete their turn. Meanwhile, Jablonski matched Coutts move for move in their start sequence, crossing the line even and finally overtaking the crafty veteran on the final upwind leg and winning by a margin of 20 seconds.

"We lost the first race but we still felt we were sailing pretty well in the pre-start," said Gram-Hansen. "We've been together for quite some time on the Swedish Match Tour and we're determined to have a good result this week."

In match three, Gram-Hansen grabbed hold of the momentum in his battle while Coutts regained control against Jablonski to seal the deal on the Polish skipper with the fourth matches being academic.

Bank was respectful of his younger opponent and the tough battle behind, "Jes hung in there in the third match when we really took it to him. We lost to a team today who was better at handling these boats around the race course in these conditions."

After initially being skeptical of the new format used at the Swedish Match Cup, Gram-Hansen has changed his perspective, "the new format we survived may actually give us an advantage going forward. The guys we'll be racing haven't competed yet this week and we've had some tough matches against Russell Coutts and Jesper Bank under our belts to draw on."

Gram-Hansen and Coutts will be facing Peter Holmberg and Oracle Racing, Swedish Match Tour 2001/2 champions, Magnus Holmberg and his crew; Dean Barker of Team New Zealand; Bertrand Pace, helming a second Team New Zealand entry; American Ed Baird and his Team Musto; and Denmark's Jesper Radich in the quarterfinal fray tomorrow.

The Swedish Match Cup resumes Thursday at 9:30am with first flight of the round robin quarterfinals.

Quarterfinals Sail-In
Flight 1
Bank def. Gram-Hansen
Coutts def. Jablonski

Flight 2
Gram-Hansen def. Bank
Jablonski def. Coutts

Flight 3
Gram-Hansen def. Bank
Coutts def. Jablonski

Flight 4
Gram-Hansen def. Bank
Coutts def. Jablonski