Cottonfield ISAF Match Racing Worlds - Day 3

WHEN: August 15th to 22nd 1999
WHERE: Skovshoved Harbour, Copenhagen, Denmark
WHO: Ten of the best match racers in the world

GILMOUR HITS THE TOP OF THE SCOREBOARD

Australia's Peter Gilmour and his Pizza-La crew from Japan have achieved a massive comeback, pushing Frenchman Bertrand Pace off the top of the scoreboard, to take the lead at the end of the third day of the Cottonfield ISAF Match Racing World Championships.

Gilmour, who will skipper the Japanese America's Cup boat, when the Louis Vuitton Cup starts in Auckland in less than two months, sailed with confidence and authority, to chalk up six victories, adding to the five he had over night.

After the first day of the series, the Pizza-La team had been down in seventh place, with just two wins on the scoreboard, but started their comeback halfway through the second day, and have not been beaten since.

Bertrand Pace, skipper of the French Le Defi Bouygues Telecom America's Cup Challenge, struggled today, winning only two of the six matches he sailed, to slip back into second place on the scoreboard.

With just three more rounds of this elimination series to sail, there are still five skippers fighting to make the cut into the semi-finals.

At this stage two Danes fill third and fourth places on the ladder, Sten Mohr hanging onto third place, just a quarter of a point ahead of Jesper Bank.

Still just outside the cut is Sweden's Magnus Holmberg, with nine points on the scoreboard, having kept his hopes alive with a last race victory over Kiwi Dean Barker today.

Barker will be regretting his lack of control in the first round robin, when he collided with Marcus Wieser on the finishing line, causing sufficient damage that the umpires penalized him an extra half a point, otherwise he would be level with Holmberg, and still in with a chance of making the cut.

Jesper Bank, who has Olympic gold and bronze medals to his credit, will have to be careful that a quarter point penalty he suffered in a similar incident, does not cost him a semi-finals place.

Also out of the running for semi-finals places are England's Chris Law, and Marcus Wieser of Germany, but both will make the sail-off for fifth to eighth places.

Struggling at the bottom of the table are Dane Morten Henriksen, and Germany's triple Olympic gold medallist Jochen Schumann, both will be eliminated on Saturday.

Conditions on the Oeresund, the stretch of water off Skovshoved Harbour, were varied today, with the breeze fluctuating between a solid 20 knots, and a soft and shifty 10 knots.

RESULTS

 Pos  Helm             Country      won  lost
----------------------------------------------------------
  1.  Peter Gilmour    Australia     11 - 5
  2.  Bertrand Pace    France        11 - 5
  3.  Sten Mohr        Denmark       10 - 5
  4.  Jesper Bank      Denmark       10 - 6  * 9.75 points
  5.  Magnus Holmberg  Sweden         9 - 6 
  6.  Dean Barker      New Zealand    9 - 8  * 8.5  points
  7.  Chris Law        Great Britain  7 - 10
  8.  Marcus Wieser    Germany        6 - 9
  9.  Morten Henriksen Denmark        4 - 13 * 3.75 points
 10. Jochen Schumann   Germany        3 - 13

Event Website: www.sail.dk