Match Racing - Sun Microsystems Australia Cup 2000 Overall

GILMOUR'S PIZZA LA TEAM IN COME-FROM-BEHIND WIN

Australian skipper Peter Gilmour, and his Japanese Pizza LA team struggled back from 2 - 0 down to win the Sun Microsystems Australia Cup on Sunday, giving him a record fourth win in the regatta.

Dean Barker and his Team New Zealand crew had held a 1 - 0 lead overnight, having taken the first heat of the first-to-win-three-race final, late on Saturday afternoon.

The Kiwis came out fighting on Sunday morning, and in the light and fickle winds won the second heat, to go 2 - 0 up, and put Gilmour's back against the wall.

However as the fabled "Fremantle Doctor" seabreeze steadied up, the Pizza-LA team found their feet, and started the long hard road back towards overall victory.

Gilmour was particularly good in the pre-start jousting, an area of the game for which Barker is renowned, and took the game to the Team New Zealand crew.

Having levelled the score at 2 - 2, Gilmour made no mistake in the fifth and deciding match, getting the better of the start, and controlling the race throughout to take the gun and the trophy.

The Perth resident skipper, who led the Japanese challenge for the recent America's Cup in Auckland, praised his crew, "they never gave up, and really picked themselves up off the canvas when we were 2 - 0 down."

The fight was equally close for third place, with Frenchman Bertrand Pace and Le Defi Francais team, battling it out with Sebastien Destremau's Sportscom Team.

Le Defi team took the first race, but Destremau, a Frenchman who lives in Perth, came back to take the next two races, and third place in the regatta.

However fourth place here, when added to their victory in Auckland, was good enough to keep Bertrand Pace and his team on top of the Swedish Match Tour championship ladder.

Dean Barker slips into second place, while Gilmour's victory lifts him from eighth to third, and should also improve his world rankings sufficiently to qualify the Pizza-LA team for the world championships.

The ACI Cup/ISAF World Championships are the next event on the Swedish Match Tour, and will be staged in Split, Croatia, from 22nd to 30th May.

Sun Microsystems Australia Cup results:

 1.  Peter Gilmour       Japan
 2.  Dean Barker         New Zealand
 3.  Sebastien Destremau Australia
 4.  Bertrand Pace       France
 5.  Peter Holmberg      US Virgin Islands 
 6.  Jes Gram-Hansen     Denmark
 7.  Luc Pillot          France
 8.  James Spithill      Australia
 9.  Gordon Lucas        Australia
10.  Magnus Holmberg     Sweden
11.  Bjorn Hansen        Sweden
12.  Andy Green          Great Britain

Swedish Match Tour - championship points after two events:

 1.  Bertrand Pace       France             37
 2.  Dean Barker         New Zealand        35
 3.  Peter Gilmour       Japan              29
 4.  Cameron Appleton    New Zealand        20
 5.  Peter Holmberg      US Virgin Islands  16
 6.  Sebastien Destremau Australia          15
 7.  Gavin Brady         New Zealand        12
 8.  Chris Dickson       New Zealand        10