Victory for Richard

French sailor knocks out Ben Ainslie in final of Match Race France

Match Race France, stage 1 of the ISAF World Match Racing Tour saw a showdown between Ben Ainslie of TeamOrigin and France's Mathieu Richard of French Match Racing Team. Richard took a convincing victory winning both of the final two matches raced in a testing 6-7 knot westerly.

Mathieu Richard, who is also tactician for Bertrand Pace's French America’s Cup syndicate, Aleph, was jubilant about his victory: “It is really great to win stage 1 of the 2010 ISAF World Match Racing Tour - we are very happy to have won here in Marseille. We had a slow start to the regatta, but a slow start motivates you to really improve when it counts. My team worked fantastically with great communication and tactics."

Ainslie sees his time invested in attending WMRT events as a profitable way to keep his match race training fresh. “My ultimate goal for the ISAF World Match Racing Tour events is to improve my match racing skills and rules knowledge”. The Tour forms an important ingredient in Ainslie’s long term America’s Cup ambition with TeamOrigin.

Richard heads home from Match Race France with 10,000 Euros in prize money and now leads the ISAF Match Racing World Championship with 25 points.

Match Race France leads on to the second round of the World Match Racing Tour in Langenargen, Germany over 19 – 24 May with Match Race Germany.

Results: