Match Race Germany - Gilmour rises as others fall by the wayside

by WMRT on 29 May 2011 Match Race Germany, the second stage of the ISAF World Match Racing Tour, is being sailed on Lake Constance, Germany.

Peter Gilmour and his YANMAR Racing crew enjoyed a welcome return to form at Match Race Germany. He is now within one win of a place in the Final.

Having defeated Richard in the Quarter-Finals, the four-time ISAF Match Racing World Champion now heads into the final day of the regatta with a 2-0 lead over Evgeny Neugodnikov. If he makes it to three points, he will battle it out against either Phil Robertson (NZL) WAKA Racing or Francesco Bruni (ITA) Bruni Racing whose match stands at 1-1.
The conditions may have been light but the racing was certainly tense. With such light winds, there was always the possibility that the Race Committee could abandon racing and let the results go to count back to determine which teams go through. No team could be sure that their previous race wouldn’t be their last.

Commenting on the conditions and his Quarter-Final performance, Gilmour said: 'In the Quarter-Finals it was all about winning the last race. And then it is what it is. It was Mathieu’s first event this year - he was sailing very well and we knew he would. It was really tight but in the end it was all about relaxing and applying what we had learnt from the beginning of the week.'

Speaking about his crew, Gilmour was not the first skipper this week to praise his team for their role in working the Bavaria boats hard in light and shifty winds. 'It was rough on this boat at the beginning of the week - we had to work a lot on the positioning, the weight and the handling of the boat. I’ve been working really hard with my two trimmers on that. They’ve been great coaches for me and very gentle as well when I was not doing things properly.'

Gilmour’s tussle with Richard over five races was full of incidents however the fireworks really ignited in their third race. It was at 1-1 that the fireworks ignited. Richard had a commanding lead as they rounded mark 2 however a zephyr brought them back together as they rounded mark 3. The Australian tried to force Richard close to the mark, hitting the Frenchman’s boat not once but twice. The umpires ruled that the collisions were two separate incidents and so Gilmour got two penalties. Two flags for Gilmour meant an immediate turn handing Richard control of the match.

At 2-1 down, Gilmour was on the ropes but was unlikely to give up: 'We were 2-1 down and we had to go strong on him and focus on our sailing rather than the result. From there it was all about not putting ourselves under any undue pressure which takes a bit of experience and maturity.'

The morning’s Quarter-Final picks saw top placed Iehl (FRA) French Match Racing Team opt to race bottom placed Neugodnikov (RUS) Team Synergy whilst Radich (DEN) Adrian Lee & Partners followed his team mates’ choice instead of his own instinct and went for Robertson over Gilmour. That left Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team to face Gilmour.

They’re decisions that Iehl, Radich and certainly Radich’s team mates will rue. Apart from a comprehensive defeat in his second race against Iehl, Neugodnikov was more than a match for Iehl. He had clearly moved up a gear since Qualifying and fought hard every time Iehl came back at him to level the scores at 1-1 and then 2-2. In the final race, he outclassed Iehl to win by a sizeable margin.

The results of the Quarter-Finals still mean Damien Iehl will retain the overall lead of the World Match Racing Tour going into the Korea Match Cup however the Frenchman will feel he could have gone a lot further than he did here in Langenargen.

Speaking after his loss, Iehl said: 'We had to pick someone and so we went for Neugodnikov because he wasn’t the strongest in light airs. The conditions were difficult and at 2-2, I picked the left which clearly wasn’t the best side as he built up a big lead which we couldn’t reduce.'

Reflecting on his defeat against Robertson, Radich said: 'That’s it, we’re out. Phil sailed well, their crew work was better than ours and with this boat, if you miss 1 metre here and 1 metre there that’s the end. It was not our day - we did not pick the right opponent. At the moment I’m disappointed but it’s fair that they won.'

Semi-Final Standings (after 2 flights):

Francesco Bruni (ITA) Bruni Racing v Phil Robertson (NZL) WAKA Racing Team 1-1
Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing v Evgeny Neugodnikov (RUS) Team Synergy 2-0

Quarter-Final Results:
Phil Robertson (NZL) WAKA Racing Team beat Jesper Radich (DEN) Adrian Lee & Partners 3-1
Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing beat Mathieu Richard(FRA) French Match Racing Team 3-2
Evgeny Neugodnikov (RUS) Team Synergy beat Damien Iehl (FRA) French Match Racing Team 3-2

2011 ISAF World Match Racing Tour Standings (After Stage 1)
1 Damien Iehl (FRA) French Match Racing Team - 25 pts
2 Bertrand Pace (FRA) Aleph Sailing Team – 22pts
3 Torvar Mirsky (AUS) The Wave Muscat – 19pts
4 Jesper Radich (DEN) Adrian Lee & Partners – 16pts
5 Pierre Antoine Morvan Extreme Team Morbihan – 14pts
6 Francesco Bruni (ITA) Bruni Racing – 12pts
7 Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing – 10pts
8 Alvaro Marinho (POR) Seth Sailing Team – 8pts
9 Phil Robertson (NZL) WAKA Racing – 4pts
10 Ian Williams (GBR) Team GAC Pindar – 2pts


The Semi-Finals will resume on Saturday with the ‘WMRT Morning Show’ from 09.30 CET* on www.wmrt.com. They will be followed by the Petite Final to decide third and fourth and the Final will be shown live on www.wmrt.com between 13.00 and 15.00 CET*. The ‘WMRT Today Show’ on www.wmrt.com will review all the final day’s events from Lake Constance from 19.30 CET*.

A live blog will run on www.wmrt.com throughout the day to give flight by flight updates. Also follow the action on the WMRT Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/worldmatchracingtour and Twitter page http://twitter.com/worldmrt .
*Times dependant on racing conditions.