Cottonfield ISAF Match Racing Worlds - Day 2
by John Roberson 19 Aug 1999 17:54 BST
WHEN: August 15th to 22nd 1999
WHERE: Skovshoved Harbour, Copenhagen, Denmark
WHO: Ten of the best match racers in the world
BERTRAND PACE STILL LEADS, GILMOUR COMING BACK
As the rain clouds close in on the end of the second day of the Cottonfield ISAF Match Racing World Championship, Bertrand Pace, skipper of Le Defi Bouygues Telecom America's Cup Challenge still sits on top of the
scoreboard.
However is unbroken run of victories that he carried forward from the first day came to a halt when he met Peter Gilmour and his all Japanese Pizza-La team, from the Nippon America's Cup Challenge.
Gilmour, an Australian and the defending champion, had struggled on the opening day, and was down in seventh place overnight, but after losing his first match of the day, against Germany's Marcus Wieser, started the long
comeback trail, defeating first Sweden's Magnus Holmberg, then Bertrand Pace, in one of the tightest matches of the day.
The Frenchman not only got a penalty on the Australian, he also came off the starting line in control, and looked as if Gilmour's comeback may be short lived.
It wasn't until they were approaching the last mark that the Pizza-La team found a good shift, and snatched the advantage, as the two boats powered downwind towards the finish, driven by a cold 20 knot breeze, Gilmour and
his crew opened up a big enough gap to complete their turn, and still grab victory.
This is still Pace's only loss, but Gilmour scored a further victory over Jochen Schumann of Germany to lift himself to fourth place at the end of the day.
In second place at this stage, and keeping the local fans happy is Denmark's Sten Mohr, two points behind the Frenchman, while Magnus Holmberg holds on to third place.
However the scoring is extremely close, with only two points separating third to eighth places, so that there is still all to sail for when the double round robin continues on Friday.
RESULTS
Pos Helm Country won lost
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1 Bertrand Pace France 9 - 1
2 Sten Mohr Denmark 7 - 3
3 Magnus Holmberg Sweden 6 - 3
4 Peter Gimour Australia 5 - 6
5 Jesper Bank Denmark 5 - 5 * 4.75 points
6 Dean Barker New Zealand 5 - 5 * 4.5 points
7 Marcus Wieser Germany 4 - 5
8 Chris Law Britain 4 - 6
9 Jochen Schumann Germany 2 - 8
10 Morten Henriksen Denmark 2 - 8 * 1.75 points
* Dean Barker, Jesper Bank and Morten Henriksen have all received extra points penalties for collisions that caused unnecessary damage.
Event Website: www.sail.dk