Sunday 15 March 2009

WMRT: Sebastien Col out of Marseille International Match Race after Quaterfinals


Seb Col and Mathieu Richard in their quarterfinal in Marseille. Image copyright Gilles Martin-Raget/World Match Racing Tour.

by Stephanie Nadin

Marseille International Match Race has been tough for the champions who were the favourites on the paper. World Match Racing Tour's leaders and America's Cup masters didn't manage to get through the quarter-finals: Ian Williams was defeated 0-3 by Torvar Mirsky, Paolo Cian is out with 2-3 against Damien Iehl, Ed Baird lost 2-3 against Adam Minoprio, and Sebastien Col finishes the competition 1-3 against Mathieu Richard.

In the “petite finale”, Seb Col wins the race against Ian Williams.

In the other “petite finale”, Ed Baird won against Paolo Cian.

Seb Col and Ed Baird will then race tomorrow for the 5th and 6th places, which is kind of a “deja vu” match, as this pair opened MIMR's Round Robin last Thursday.

Sebastien Col about the quarter-finals: «both of our teams did sail really well during the four races. But they have been a bit better than us, mainly on the starts. We sailed at a very high level. For us, we were better than yesterday, and the debriefing of our last races helped us to have a new start this morning, but we still have to work. Today, the left of the race course was the best side, and the one sailing on this side was the winner. So the goal was to have a good start on the left of our opponent, the result was automatic. Tomorrow, our goal is to play for the 5th place against Ed Baird. And after that, there will be a lot of work during the trainings with the French team to improve. We have identified our work targets, and we mainly need to spend some time together to have a better coordination with the same tactical and strategical references, but also for the manoeuvres, mainly to make some better starts.»

Next step on Sebastien Col and his team's schedule: the prestigious Congressional Cup, 23-28 March, in Long Beach, USA.

The next World Match Racing Tour's event will be the Match Race Germany, 27 May-1 June.

Sebastien Col
K-Challenge
World Match Racing Tour

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