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| CHAMPIONSHIP BATTLES LOOM AT FINAL EVENT |
| Friday, 18 June 2004 |
Oracle BMW Racing holds a narrow lead over SeaLife Rangers during the quarterfinals of the Toscana Elba Cup – Trofeo Locman 2004. (Simon Palfrader/SEA&SEE)
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Alinghi Team skipper Russell Coutts (NZL) and mainsail trimmer Warwick Fleury (NZL). (Andrea Campagnolo/ SEA&SEE)
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Ed Baird shows a light touch on the wheel during pactice against Peter Gilmour for Congressional Cup 2004. (Bob Grieser/Outside Images)
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ROWAYTON, Conn. (June 18, 2004) — Although Peter Gilmour of Australia and the Pizza-La Sailing Team have clinched the championship of the 2003-’04 Swedish Match Tour, tight battles remain throughout the scoreboard.
The Swedish Match Cup in Marstrand, Sweden (July 5-11), is the final event of the current tour, and the final opportunity for crews to move up in the rankings and increase their share of the $200,000 bonus purse offered to the top eight on the final leaderboard by Tour sponsor Swedish Match.
The Swedish Match Cup lineup features five of the top eight on the Championship Leaderboard, and nine of the 25 skippers who have scored points on the current tour. Overall, 38 skippers and crews have competed in at least one event on the 2003-’04 Tour.
Gilmour and the Pizza-La Sailing Team (Rod Dawson, Mike Mottl, Kazuhiko Sofuku and Yasuhiro Yaji) lead the rankings with 130 points.
They have accumulated 142 points through seven events with finishes of 3-1-1-4-2-2-1, but a team’s six best finishes only are counted in the final standings, meaning they’re discarding a fourth from the Tour stop in Long Beach, Calif.
Regardless of how Gilmour and Pizza-La finish in Sweden, they’ve already established some Tour records.
They’ll finish the season with a minimum of 130 points, a new Tour record. (Peter Holmberg of the U.S. Virgin Islands totaled 120 points in winning the 2001-’02 Tour.) They can increase that total by finishing first or second at the final event.
No crew has ever counted all top-three finishes on the Tour, and their three wins tie them with Denmark’s Jesper Radich and Holmberg for most victories in a Tour season.
New Zealander Gavin Brady, helmsman for the BMW Oracle Racing America’s Cup syndicate, holds second with 70 points, and leads Sweden’s Magnus Holmberg and the SeaLife Rangers crew by 6 points.
There’s a rivalry simmering between this pair, which began last month at the Tour stop in Porto Azzurro, Italy. Brady beat Holmberg 2-0 in their quarterfinal match, passing him on the runs and tagging two penalties on him in the deciding race.
They split their two round-robin matches at the following event in Croatia, with Sweden’s Holmberg winning the first. With $40,000 at stake for second place on the Tour versus $25,000 for third, vim and vigor will be prominent in the pre-starts.
Frenchman Bertrand Pacé, a new addition to the BMW Oracle Racing Team, and Danes Radich and Jes Gram-Hansen are placed fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively, with 55 points, 43 points and 38 points.
Neither of the past Swedish Match Tour champions (Pacé in 2000 and Radich in ’03) nor Gram-Hansen (third overall in 2002 and 2003) is scheduled to compete in Marstrand.
Both New Zealander Russell Coutts, seventh with 35 points, and American Ed Baird, eighth with 31 points, look to move up the standings for a bigger share of the bonus purse.
Coutts achieved his position by winning in Italy and placing fifth in Bermuda. Baird won in Long Beach and placed seventh in Italy.
Wins on the Swedish Match Tour are worth 25 points, second is worth 20 points and third 15 points. Fourth earns 12 points, fifth 10 points, sixth 8 points, seventh 6 points and eighth 4 points.
The $200,000 bonus purse offered by Swedish Match to the top eight on the final Championship Leaderboard is distributed as follows: 1st – $60,000, 2nd – $40,000, 3rd – $25,000, 4th – $20,000, 5th – $18,000, 6th – $15,000, 7th – $12,000, 8th – $10,000.
The Swedish Match Cup is the eighth and final event on the 2003-’04 Tour. Previous stops included Skovshoved, Denmark (Aug. 2003), Hamilton, Bermuda (Oct. ’03), Hayama, Japan (Nov. ’03), Long Beach, Calif. (April 2004), Porto Azzurro, Italy and Split, Croatia (both May ’04) and Langenargen, Germany (June ’04).
The 2004-’05 Swedish Match Tour begins the last week of July with the Portugal Match Cup (July 27-31) in Cascais, Portugal. Event No. 2 is scheduled 10 days later in Skovshoved, Denmark (Aug. 10-15). Seven other events are tentatively set to follow.
# # #
RELATED COVERAGE
Photo Gallery
Swedish Match Tour Video Highlights
Swedish Match Tour Championship Leaderboard
Gilmour Cleans Up at Match Race Germany (June 13, 2004)
Pizza-La Team Wins Mercedes (June 12, 2004)
Pacé, Team France Win ACI HTmobile Cup (May 29, 2004)
Coutts Wins Toscana Elba Cup (May 9, 2004)
Baird's Resiliency and Luck Lead to Victory (April 24, 2004)
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT
Sean McNeill
Swedish Match Tour Director of Public Relations
Phone: +1 401/846-8812
Mobile: +1 401/662-1501
E-mail: smcneill@f10marketing.com
Joakim Hermansson
Swedish Match Tour Director of Public Relations, Nordic countries
Mobile: +46/70/604 25 04
E-mail: Joakim.hermansson@home.se
SWEDISH MATCH TOUR 2003-04 RANKINGS
(After seven of eight events)
1. Peter Gilmour/AUS Pizza-La Sailing Team 130 points
2. Gavin Brady/NZL BMW Oracle Racing 70 points
3. Magnus Holmberg/SWE SeaLife Rangers 64 points
4. Bertrand Pacé/FRA BMW Oracle Racing 55 points
5. Jesper Radich/DEN Team Radich 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
PAST SWEDISH MATCH TOUR CHAMPIONS
2003 Jesper Radich/DEN 111 points
2002 Peter Holmberg/ISV 120 points
2001 Magnus Holmberg/SWE 104 points
2000 Bertrand Pacé/FRA 114 points
ABOUT THE 2003-’04 SWEDISH MATCH TOUR
• The Swedish Match Tour is the leading professional sailing series in the world.
• The Tour offers $800,000 in overall prize money, with $200,000 divided among the top eight teams in the Swedish Match Tour Rankings List.
• The winner of the Rankings List wins a $60,000 bonus as well as the official Swedish Match Tour Championship Trophy, produced by Swedish Match Tour sponsor Wedgwood.
• Swedish Match Tour events take place in venues with virtual on-the-water stadiums, which allow general public spectators to follow the races shoreside.
• The Swedish Match Tour produces 155 hours of television coverage reaching more than 426 million households worldwide annually.
• Swedish Match Tour partners include Swedish Match and the Match Race Association, Colorcraft, Musto, and Wedgwood.
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