2014 Detroit Cup - Down to the final four

by Dobbs Davis on 24 Aug 2014 2014 Detroit Cup - Another day of very light air and even fog in the morning could not stop the completion of the Quarter-Finals and the determination of the four Semi-Finalists today at the 2014 Detroit Cup, hosted by Bayview YC. These four will meet each other in a first-to-three point series tomorrow in the final day of the event, the second stop in the ISAF Grade Two US Grand Slam series.

In conditions that tested everyone’s timing and light air skills, two semi-finalists still managed to win three - zero against their opponents: Bayview’s Matt Graham continued his winning streak from the Round Robin by defeating Wataru Sakamoto from Japan. And with a style that left no doubt as to why he is the event’s top-ranked skipper at seventh in the world, Pierre-Antoine Morvan from France defeated David Storrs from Connecticut to join Graham for his place in the Final Four.

But it took one more flight to determine the third Semi-Finalist in this series, as Oakcliff’s Chris Poole suffered a loss to Sam Gilmour from Australia in the second flight in an exciting match that saw Poole leading throughout until a final gybe at the finish gave the victory to Gilmour by only a meter at the line. Poole managed to battle back in the fourth and final match to then take the series three - one.

And the last Semi-Finalist had fight through five tough matches to earn his place, as Singaporean Maximillian Soh’s expertise at match racing was trumped twice by Bayview-based Ian Hollerbach’s knowledge of the current-strewn race venue and the Ultimate 20’s used in the competition. It only in a final-match showdown that had the spectator-lined shoreline at Bayview on their feet to cheer on their favorite that Soh finally managed to defeat Hollerbach and take his place in the Semi’s.

The final match race action of the day came in the late afternoon when the fifth-12th placed teams were paired off in a one-match sudden death sail-off to race for the fifth, seventh, ninth, and 11th places. In this series Gilmour defeated Hollerbach for fifth place, Storrs defeated Sakamoto for seventh place, Dustin Durant from Long Beach defeated Bayview’s Chris Van Tol for ninth place, and Peter Holz from the Chicago Match Race Center defeated Shane Diviny from Ireland for 11th place.

Match racing continues tomorrow in the final day of competition in the 2014 Detroit Cup, with the first-to-three point Semi-Finals starting at 10:00 AM EDT, followed by the Finals, Petit-Finals and the awards presentations.

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2014 Detroit Cup Complete Results: