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| VIDEO INTERVIEWEES: COUTTS AND GILMOUR |
| Thursday, 15 July 2004 |
Russell Coutts and his Danish crew have Peter Gilmour’s Pizza-La Sailing Team tucked to leeward during the Swedish Match Cup final. (Dan Ljungsvik)
Image © Dan Ljungsrik
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Brad Webb, of BMW Oracle Racing, Peter Gilmour, of the Pizza-La Sailing Team, and Magnus Holmberg, of SeaLife Rangers, the top three finishers on the 2003-`04 Swedish Match Tour. (Swedish Match Tour: Dan Ljungsvik)
Image © Dan Ljungsrik
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Swedish Match Tour champion skipper Peter Gilmour (left) and Swedish Match CEO Sven Hindrickes (right) hold up the $60,000 bonus check for winning the Swedish Match Tour. (Swedish Match Tour: Dan Ljungsvik)
Image © Dan Ljungsrik
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Michael Arnhild, Christian Kamp and Russell Coutts accept the Swedish Match Cup. (Swedish Match Tour: Dan Ljungsvik)
Image © Dan Ljungsrik
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ROWAYTON, Conn. (July 15, 2004) — On the final day of the Swedish Match Cup veteran British match-racer Chris Law, who finished fourth with his crew “The Outlaws” in defense of their 2003 title, kept stating, “I hope we provided good entertainment.” Rest assured; the entertainment factor was quite high.
What with two skippers taking a plunge overboard during racing — Law in the Petit Final when his tiller extension broke and Peter Holmberg in the round-robin after being rammed by Russell Coutts — numerous collisions and a tight race track, the Swedish Match Cup provided great theater to wrap the fifth Swedish Match Tour.
The rollicking final pitted Coutts’ Danish crew against Peter Gilmour’s Pizza-La Sailing Team, and was classic.
Would Gilmour’s aggressiveness take him over the top and gain a measure of revenge? Or would Coutts’ ability to sail high and tight win the day?
The two met in the final of the Tour stop in Porto Azzurro, Italy, in early May and Coutts pulled out a 2-1 victory after lulling Gilmour into a foul in the final pre-start.
On a short and tight one-way racecourse in Marstrand, Sweden, that favored the left corner, Coutts and crew Michael Arnhild, Jes Gram-Hansen, Christian, Kamp and Rasmus Kostner lived on Gilmour’s hip and scored a 3-1 victory.
The Danes weren’t lacking for experience. Gram-Hansen and his three compatriots placed eighth on the final Tour leaderboard after finishing third overall each of the two previous years.
They practiced for a week in Denmark and while they seemed fairly smooth there were still times when lack of time together was apparent.
Danish skipper Jesper Bank (Coutts’ opponent in the quarterfinals) and Gilmour said they heard Coutts imploring the Danes to think clearly in close-quarter situations.
Coutts secured Gram-Hansen’s team as his crew two weeks before the event. “I’m having some issues with Alinghi and needed a new crew,” Coutts said at the post-race press conference.
Coutts, who skippered Team Alinghi to victory in the 2003 America’s Cup and has won more races for the America’s Cup, 14, than any other skipper in history, has been involved in a dispute with Alinghi that has nearly every station of the sailing fraternity opining. “The likely outcome with Alinghi is I’ll be parting ways,” he said.
Watch a nine-minute interview with Coutts as he discusses Alinghi, sailing with a new crew and his prospects for the future:
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While they didn’t win the Swedish Match Cup, the coronation of Gilmour and crew Rod Dawson, Mike Mottl, Kazuhiko Sofuku and Yasuhiro Yaji as Tour champions was assured when they finished second at the Tour event in Croatia in late May.
They set a new standard by which future Tour champions will be measured. They participated in all eight Tour stops and finished in the top four at each one.
Tour scoring regulations call for dropping a team’s two worst finishes, so Gilmour and Pizza-La finished with all firsts and seconds, a record. They totaled 150 points, another record. They won more than $235,000 in prize money. They won more than 70-percent of their races. They won a Mercedes-Benz. The list is endless.
Watch a three and a half minute interview with Gilmour, holding his champion’s trophy, who speaks about the 2003-’04 Tour and plans for the future: 56k | 100k | 256k | 400k | 800k |
Gilmour talks about new events joining the Swedish Match Tour: 56k | 100k | 256k | 400k | 800k |
(Interviews conducted by Swedish Match Tour TV partner Sportshows Television.)
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