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AINSLIE »THE KING OF KOPER«
28.09.2008 @ 17,00
After three days of strong-north-eastern wind Bora, enthusiastic Round Robin
and strained semifinals, South African Ian Ainslie took the victory at the
Slovenia Match Race cup Grade 2.
Early in the morning the Race commitee has given the start to the semifinals. The
excellent coordination of the Race comitee and the crews made posible the
arrangement of all the semifinal duels untill 1.30. p.m.
Ian Ainslie win over Pierre Antoine Morvan in 4 flight, afterwards Tomislav
Bašič the winner of the Round Robin series win over the fresh European champion
Russian Eugeniy Neugodnikov. » It was not easy, we had a lot of »technical«
problems but we did it » said Bašič immediatly after the third semifinals win.
The North eastern wind was not as light as announced in the todays weather
forecastand and some gustst tooked 25 knots. The Race comitee arranged the
semifinals with the new TheOne design boats and after the race all the
partecipants declared the the new »ten's« are extremily fast.
Tomislav Bašič who was the real surprise of the Round Robin and all the Slovenia
Match Race cup, after the win in the semifinals didn't repeat an extraordinary
sailing in the finals. Ian Ainslie was superior and took three wins in four
flights. Bašič finished on the second place, Morvan on third and Neugodnikov on
fourth.
Behind the top finished Franch Alex Littoz on 5-th, Danish Peter Wibroe on 6-th
and Polish Przemek Tarnacki on 7-th place followed by the three slovenian
skippers Jure Orel, Gašper Vinčec and Jon Brecelj who concluded on the 10-th
place overall.
LITTOZ WON
27.09.2008 @ 19,00
Late afternoon the wind started to decline, so the Regatta
committee
decided to start the race for 5th place. After three flights
Littoz won 2 : 1.
TOO MUCH WIND
IN KOPER
27.09.2008
The todays semifinals of the Slovenia Match Race cup were delayed due to strong
wind.
It was very windy today in Koper. The North easter Wind called Bora blows with
gusts sometimes up to 35 knots. Therefore it was too much risky to make a
regatta in such extreme conditions in the Gulf of Koper. The Regatta
committee has
decided to postponed the semifinals on tomorrow morning. The start of the first
semifinal is expected at 9.00 a.m.
AGGRESSIVE
RACING DECIDES THE FOUR SEMIFINALISTS
26.9.2008 @ 14,30
The Round Robin is over with the following 4 skippers moving in the semifinals.
Tomislav Bašič – Croatia
Eugeniy Neugodnikov – Russia
Ian Ainslie – South Africa
P.A. Morvan - France
The second day of the competition on Slovenia Match race cup the participants
did not have so much luck as they did the day before. Five more flights of the
Round Robin have been sailed today. In the early morning the wind in the Koper
gulf was stable, but little bit later, the north-eastern wind, which was quite
strong around 10.30 a.m. dropped for 30 minutes. In the meantime the racing
committee completed another two flights. There have not been any surprises at the
beginning of the day and all the favorites defeated their respective opponents.
Bašič who was in the lead after the first day entered in a semifinal easily
with another two wins. ( 8-1) The second semifinalist is Ian Ainslie with the
same score. (8-1) It is important to mention Eugeniy Nugodnikov from Russia , who
defeated Bašič in the 13-th flight and approached to the semifinals with seven
wins ( 7-2 ). Close to him the last semifinalist, the No. 12 of the world ranking
list French Pierre Antoine Morvan who entered in the semifinals with 7 wins to.
Closest to the top finished Peter Wibroe (4-5) and Alex Littoz (4-5) on the 5-th
and 6-th place. Behind them polish team with Przemek Tarnacki with three wins in
a Round robin series, At the bottom of the classification the three Slovenian
skippers Gašper Vinčec and Jure Orel with two wins and Jon Brecelj who did not
succeeded any single race. Tomorrow the semifinals on three victories with Bora
wind announced.
BAŠIĆ ON THE TOP
25.09. @ 19,00
Croatian skipper Tomislav Bašič was the real hero on the first day of the
Slovenia Match race cup 2008. Ideal , sometimes very strong wind from north east
( 20 – 25 knots ), made interesting all the duels in the regattas fields below »Zusterna«
and the old port of Koper.
The regatta committee arranged 10 flights which was more than planned for the
day 1. Today's Round robin flights finished with Bašič in the lead with seven
wins. A Croat was unmerciful against the No. 12 of World Match race ranking P.A.
Morvan in the first flight, afterwards he wins another six flights against
Brecelj, Orel, Ainslie, Wibroe, Tarnacky and Vinčec.
Neugodnikov took second place with 5 victories, afterwards, there is South
African Ian Ainslie with four victories.
Vincec won 2 and Orel only 1 race and is ahead of Brecelj who did not succeeded
a single race.
The competition will continue tomorrow with the remaining Round robin flights.
The weather forecast announces strong wind from north east, even stronger as it
was today.
TRAINING DAY FOR ALL THE TEAMS AT THE SLOVENIA MATCH RACE CUP
Koper, 24.9.2008
Pierre Antoine Morvan and Ian Ainslie opened the training day at the Slovenia
Matc race cup. French and South African skippers were the first to move out on
the Bay of Koper this morning. Back from the sailing area , both of them
declared. »The new TheOne design boats are extremely fast with impressive
performance, but in the strong wind is going to be very though«.
Strong wind from NE is forecasted for Friday, the second day of the Round robin
series, which means spectacularly sailing close to the coast .
All the participants are invited to take part at the welcome party this evening
in the old Taverna. |  |
THE ORGANIZING BOARD OF THE SLOVENIA MATCH RACE CUP PRESENTED THE EVENT
Yesterday the Organizational board of the Slovenia Match race cup ( SMRC )
presented an event, that will take place in Koper, collaborated with the
Slovenian Sailing association.
Koper is, the biggest town on Slovenian coast in the Northern Adriatic sea, and
match race is organized as well, under the patronage of The municipality of the
city of Koper.
As Jure Orel, the president of the Organizing committee and one of the best
Slovene match racers ever said, the SMRC is going to be a nice competition with
the excellent new TheOne design boats, designed by Slovenian nautical architect
Andrej Justin.
The project was born this year and is a result of a new racing philosophy.
During the Round Robin series the participants are going to sail 4 of the new
TheOne design and 4 of well known J-24.
French
Pierre Antoine Morvan no.12
of the world match race rank is leading the list of the participants. Close to
French Champion is the actual European champion
Eugenij
Neugodnikov no.14 of the rank. Danish
Peter Wibroe
could also be one of the favourite, together wit the local champion Jure Orel
no. 18 of the match race rank list.
South African
Ian Ainslie is presented with a new crew but as he said yesterday
at the press conference he is impatient to compete with the new TheOne design
boats.
French
Alexis Littoz, leading Polish Match racer
Przemek Tarnacki , Croat
Tomislav Bašič can also surprise higher ranked competitors.
In the end of the list are two young Slovene match racers.
Jon Brecelj no.102
of the match race rank and
Gašper Vinčec
( 7th place on the Olympics in Finn ).
All the participants are already in Koper.
The weather forecast is promising a good NE wind, till Sunday.
The start of the first Round robin series is expected tomorrow at 11.00 am.
See you at the pier of the old Koper port.
Qualifier for SMRC over in a heartbeat (success of Slovene teams) (21.04.2008)
Sailing club J-24 and Cleanport d.o.o. have been organizing ISAF graded match
race regattas for a a few years now. And the rank of these events has been
steadily rising, culminating with grade 1 Slovenia Match Race Cup 2008 in Koper
this September. Past weekend was reserved for its qualifier named Slovenia Match Race Qualifier,
sailed in Izola.
Though SMRQ was technically a grade 3, just like the national MR
championships, in reality the points awarded to skippers will be almost as high
as on a grade 2 event (due to all listed skippers being in the top 150 on ISAF
rankings). Cancellations from crews are nothing uncommon, but having four of
them is a bit unpleasant. Since three of the crews cancelled their entry at the
last moment, you will find them in the results with zero wins.
So on Saturdays morning briefing only six teams were present, but this did not
spoil anyone's mood. On the contrary, with a reasonable weather forecast, this
meant a big probability to carry out the complete program including semifinals
and finals, which usually get left out on two day events.
In a strong Jugo wind, that later shifted to west, racing began with first of
the surprises. Davit Tab managed to win against the favorite and event organizer
Jure Orel, but Jure and his team quickly came back and won all their other
matches in the round robin. It was a really bad day for Italian team of Jacopo
Pasini though. With only two on matches they failed to reach the semifinals,
along with team of Orkun Soyer, who will want to quickly forget his result in
Slovenija. So besides local Jure Orel, David Tab from Great Brittan, Monaco's
Gian-Luca Perris and the second Slovene team of Jon Brecelj went on to
semifinals.
Orel waggishly chose Tab as his semi-final opponent, and got a good revenge with
three straight wins. Unfortunately Brecelj's team was pretty exhausted by the
tough matches in the round robin, so all they could manage was 0-3 against
Perris, who has shown great boat speed and boat handling on the J-24 sailboats
in Izola. Pasini won against Soyer in the fight for fifth place and all that was
left for Sunday were the finals.
A calm Sunday morning did not deceive the Race Committee. At 10:00
competitors were ordered to sail out, and as soon as the wind stabilized the
race course was set. In fear of a forecasted wind shortage, the format was
changed by the RC to 'best of three' just before the racing began (the wind
later on lasted through the day). Tabb continued with his great
performance, and went on to win the petit final against Brecelj 2-0, to earn the
final third place. The grand final was a different story altogether. After what
seemed an easy Orel's lead by 1-0, Perris once again proved his skills on a J-24
and equalized the result at 1-1. 'Dangerous but Fun' team from Monaco pushed
hard also in the deciding third match, but Orel's 'Team Eagles' aggressively
defended their lead from start to finish, to finally win for the first time at
their home event (excluding national MR championships).
By the words of competitors, umpires and race committee members it was just
another nice, friendly and exemplary executed MR event at the traditional
hospitable Izola venue. Slovenes
can be very satisfied with Orel's first place, third place of Jure Dolenc
(sailing with the team of David Tabb) and fourth place of team Hi3 Team
skippered by Jon Brecelj (this should help Jon rise towards the top 100 on ISAF
ranking). Winning the qualifier Orel also earned his team the right to compete
at Slovenia Match Race Cup-u (grad 1) in September.
Therefore all match racing fans and supporters of dynamic sailing are kindly
invited to Koper between 25. in 28. September, to watch live how some of the
world's top match racers fight it out amongst themselves for the title Slovenia
Match Race Cup champion.
You can check out the results of all stages on page RESULTS and some
photos on page GALLERY.
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