Swedish
Match Tour - Gilmour Cleans Up At Swedish Match
Tour
The
Australian skipper of the Pizza-La Sailing Team
put on a show for the ages
LANGENARGEN,
Germany — Peter Gilmour and the Pizza-La
Sailing Team gained a measure of revenge today
with a thorough victory over Bertrand Pacé’s
French crew in the final of Match Race Germany,
the penultimate event on the Swedish Match Tour
2003-’04.
Gilmour
and the Pizza-La crew, including Mike Mottl (AUS),
Kazuhiko Sofuku (JPN), Yasuhiro Yaji (JPN) and
local German sailor Carsten Kemmling, defeated
Pacé and crewmembers Benoit Briand (FRA),
Thierry Fouchier (FRA), Fabrice Levet (FRA) and
German Claas de Jong, 3-2, to claim the ninth
annual event sailed on Lake Constance in southern
Germany.
After
losing to Pacé in the Swedish Match Tour
final at Croatia two weeks ago, Gilmour came to
Germany with a vengeance, and left with a slew
of accolades.
Gilmour
clinched the Swedish Match Tour Championship for
2003-’04 with his second at Croatia, but
this week he padded his lead even more.
He
earned 25 points by finishing first and increased
his total to 142 points. He leads second place
by 72 points. The team’s victory was its
third in seven events on the 2003-’04 Tour.
By
becoming the first skipper to win 10 straight
races at Match Race Germany, he won a Mercedes
Benz SLK 200 roadster valued at Euro 40,000 (approximately
$48,000). And the Pizza-La crew won Euro 4,800
(approximately $5,700) in prize money.
“We
also have a bit of humility,” said Gilmour,
44, from Perth, Western Australia. “It was
a fabulous week.”
Pacé
was clearly disappointed about losing, but knew
it’d be difficult to beat Gilmour a second
consecutive time.
“I
couldn’t get out of being the port-tack
boat in the pre-start,” said Pacé,
42. “He kept pushing us into trouble. Peter
and his crew were clearly the better team today.”
In
the Petit Final, Gavin Brady’s BMW Oracle
Racing crew (Dirk de Ridder, Sean Clarkson, Brad
Webb, Andreas John) defeated Jes Gram-Hansen’s
Team Denmark (Rasmus Kostner, Christian Kamp,
Michael Arnhild, Henning Sohm) 3-1 to capture
third, and place Team Denmark fourth.
“We
won three starts and he won one, and that was
the difference,” said Brady, 30, the helmsman
for America’s Cup challenger BMW Oracle
Racing.
“Once
we got up 2-0, we were able to change our strategy
a bit and put more pressure on (Gram-Hansen) to
sail a perfect race. We wanted to make it hard
for him to execute,” said Brady.
Gram-Hansen
expressed more disappointment today than yesterday,
when he lost the one race showdown with Gilmour
for the Mercedes Benz.
“Gilmour
should’ve won that race, we never expected
to,” said Gram-Hansen, 32. “I made
some slight errors in timing. They were about
2 or 3 seconds, but it’s the difference
between good and very good.”
The
Swedish Match Cup is the final event on the 2003-’04
Tour. Held in Marstrand, Sweden, it is scheduled
July 5-11.
SWEDISH
MATCH TOUR 2003-’04 RANKINGS
(After
seven of eight events)
1.
Peter Gilmour/AUS, Pizza-La Sailing Team —
142 points
2.
Gavin Brady/NZL, BMW Oracle Racing — 70
points
3.
Magnus Holmberg/SWE, SeaLife Rangers — 64
points
4.
Bertrand Pacé/FRA, Team France —
55 points
5.
Jesper Radich/DEN, Team Denmark — 43 points
6.
Jes Gram-Hansen/DEN, Team Denmark — 38 points
7.
Russell Coutts/NZL, Team Alinghi — 35 points
8.
Ed Baird/USA, Team Musto — 31 points
MATCH
RACE GERMANY FINAL STANDINGS
(Euro
20,000 prize purse, approximately $24,000)
Place
Skipper/Nationality, Team — Won-Lost —
Prize Money
1.
Peter Gilmour/AUS, Pizza-La Sailing Team —
15-2 — €4,800 ($5,700)
Crew:
Yasuhiro Yaji, Mike Mottl, Kazuhiko Sofuku, Carsten
Kemmling
2.
Bertrand Pacé/FRA — 10-7 —
€2,800 ($3,300)
Crew:
Benoit Briand, Thierry Fouchier, Fabrice Levet,
Claas de Jong
3.
Gavin Brady/NZL, BMW Oracle Racing — 12-4
— €2,400 ($2,800)
Crew:
Dirk de Ridder, Sean Clarkson, Brad Webb, Andreas
John
4.
Jes Gram-Hansen/DEN, Team Denmark — 10-6
— €2,000 ($2,400)
Crew:
Rasmus Kostner, Christian Kamp, Michael Arnhild,
Henning Sohm
5.
Luc Pillot/FRA — 7-6 — €2,000
($2,400)
Crew:
Tanguy Cariou, Christian Scherrer, Teva Plichart,
Florian Weser
6.
Mathieu Richard/FRA — 4-9 — €1,600
($1,900)
Crew:
Yannick Simon, Olivier Herledand, Pierre-Alexis
Ponset, Christoph Fuchs
7.
Eric Monin/SUI — 5-8 — €1,400
($1,600)
Crew:
Jean-Claude Monin, Marc Monin, Alain Marchand,
Caspar Büttner
8.
Tino Ellegast/GER — 2-11 — €1,200
($1,400)
Crew:
Arne Gülzow, Rudi Monteu, Philipp Hofstetter,
Holger Lehning
9.
Karol Jablonski/POL, Toscana Challenge —
1-4 — €1,000 ($1,200)
Crew:
Markus Wieser, Tom Baranowski, Piotr Przybylski,
Wolfgang Käfer
10.
Michael Dunstan/AUS, OzBoyz Challenge —
2-3 — €800 ($960)
Crew:
Nick Partridge, Ben Morrison-Sack, Seve Jarvin,
Tobi Aulich
11.
Lars Nordbjerg/DEN — 1-4
Crew:
Thomas Hartvig, Niels Gramkov, Henning Lambertsen,
Martin Metzing
12.
Ray Davies/NZL, Team New Zealand — 0-5
Crew:
Kelvin Harrap, Carl Williams, Matti Paschen, Jan
Reblin
For
more information on the Swedish Match Tour, its
skippers and events please visit www.SwedishMatchTour.com.
