World Match Racing Tour Cape Crow Cup - Overall
by World Match Racing Tour 26 Sep 2016 07:41 BST
23-25 September 2016
Gilmour keeps cool head to win
With a strong breeze of 15-20 knots pushing from the south and a strong current in the south east of the island of Öckerö the scene was set for the final day of the Cape Crow Cup. Nicklas Dackhammar (SWE) and his Essiq Racing Team came out strong right from the start and continued their momentum to the end of the round robin. Dackhammar fell short of enough points to topple David Gilmour (AUS) but the two of them appeared in a league of their own.
Torvar Mirsky (AUS) who all but secured his semifinal spot yesterday sealed his place in the deciding matches with four wins in the second round robin. Hans Wallén (SWE) was pushed hard in round robin two and was beaten by Joachim Aschenbrenner (DEN), Måns Holmberg (SWE) and Philip Bendon (IRL) but thanks to Wallén Racings strong performance in the first round, the fierce Swede managed to claw his way in to the Semi's.
The Semi Finals saw some fantastic matches but carrying their great form from the morning were Gilmour and Dackhammar, winning their respective matches with 2-0 and ensuring their invitations to the second World Championship stage of the WMRT 2016/2017 season.
The first match in the Final was won by Essiq Racing, with Dackhammar sailing a flawless match, helped by some boat handling errors by David Gilmour. Team Gilmour managed to pull themselves together nailing the following two starts and managing to stay away from the hunting Dackhammar to take victory with a 2-1 score line.
In the petit final Mirsky won in two swift races against Wallén securing the last podium place.
Commenting on his win Gilmour said, "We're obviously very happy with the win. I think these intense events are the absolute best way to get the necessary experience to challenge at the bigger events. Our aim is to qualify for the WMRT Finals and it's a great start that we managed to win here and secure a spot at the WC event."
The race committee managed to pull off 68 matches over the three day event under PRO Robert Ohlsson's watchful eye. With the strong breeze all the teams were tired after the efforts of today. Said Nicklas Dackhammar, "We're really happy with the result. The conditions were absolutely perfect today and our teamwork is starting to come together. Its been a long day with many matches. We haven't match raced much lately and half of the team is more or less new to it. We set a goal to qualify, which we did and now we have secured entry to the first two WC events of the season. With that in mind we are very happy."
Full results at www.wmrt.com