NAIL BITING END TO THE ROUND ROBIN
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Jesper Radich at the Danish Open (Photo:Per Heegaard)
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Sebastien Col was amongst the lucky competitors that managed to sail on the first day of the Danish Open 2007 (Photo:Per Heegaard)
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Peter Wibroe at the Danish Open 2007. (Photo: Per Heegaard)
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Ian Williams waits for the results of the round robin at the Danish Open (Photo: WMRT/Craig Mitchell)
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (11 August 2007) by Gordon Smith — The fight to secure a semi final place in the Danish Open went down to the last match of the Round Robin. As predicted from yesterdays results the teams have been going all out to make the semi final cut. The results of the last three matches were critical to decide the semi final places. There were potentially 7 teams that were in the hunt for the 4 places during the last flight.

The tension was mounting all afternoon as racing was suspended at 1400 due to a lack of wind. After a three and a half hour wait the last flight resumed during a thunderstorm.
With the rain pouring down Peter Wibroe and Bjorn Hansen had a sudden death match with a loss by either meaning elimination and a win by either would guarantee them a place in the semi finals. Wibroe took the bull by the horns and led from the start. On the second upwind leg Hansen fought back resulting in a luffing match. In a move used by Wibroe to good effect a number of times in this event he dropped his jib and kept control of the match, staying ahead to the finish, much to the delight of the home crowd.

With only a win being good enough to make the cut Jesper Bank had his back to the wall. Philippe Presti led from start to finish and held off a late charge from Bank which saw the boats overlapped on the finish line continuing an unsuccessful year so far for the triple Olympic medalist.

Going into the last match of the Round Robin the final ranking was still undecided. Ironically win or lose Col was through but the result was critical to Bank and Williams. Williams was ashore having done the calculations and found himself cheering for Col. Col didn’t disappoint Team Pindar as he sailed away from Mathieu Richard to a comfortable win.

At tonight’s gala dinner Jesper Radich will announce his choice of semi final opponent which may see Col up against their recently enthusiastic supporters, Ian Williams’ Team Pindar. Boats and side of entry will be drawn at the briefing tomorrow morning.

Round Robin Result:

1 Jesper Radich (DEN) 8-3
2 Sébastien Col (FRA) 8-3
3 Peter Wibroe (DEN) 8-3
4 Ian Williams (GBR) 7-4
5 Jesper Bank (DEN) 7-4
6 Björn Hansen (SWE) 6-5
7 Philippe Presti (FRA) 5-6
8 Sten Mohr (DEN) 5-6
9 Staffan Lindeberg (FIN) 4-7
10 Mathieu Richard (FRA) 4-7
11 Paolo Cian (ITA) 3-8
12 Rasmus Viltoft (DEN) 1-10

The racing can be followed live on the internet courtesy of the onboard tracking systems at

www.tractrac.com/danishopen

Links

Results in Detail

Photos from the Danish Open

Follow the racing live at www.tractrac.com/danishopen
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