After a long day that had it all starting with long delays with no wind, then light and shifty conditions, and ending with a building breeze and waves 24-year old Adam Minoprio (NZL) and his Emirates Team New Zealand/BlackMatch Racing team of David Swete, Tom Powrie, and Dan McLean have won the Marseille International Match Race, the first event of the 2009 World Match Racing Tour.
Minoprio had two formidable French obstacles on his path to victory today, starting with Damien Iehl and his French Match Racing Team, who he met in the Semi-Finals. But the series did not start off well, as the Kiwis misjudged the start and were caught over the line early at the gun. Unfazed, Minoprio and team kept their focus in the light and shifty conditions to find a little advantage on the right side of the course and gain back enough to pass Iehl in the middle of the first windward leg.
Showing great composure rather than just reactionary covering tactics, the Kiwis let Iehl take the right while they sailed into a little more pressure they saw to the left, and promptly extended their one length lead to three. It was never less than this for the remainder of this first match.
As the weak sea breeze continued to weaken, Minoprio and team once again were behind at the start in the second Semi-Final match, but managed to roll over Iehl just before the bottom mark. The two teams split, the Kiwis left and the French right, but Iehl got stuck in a windless hole, allowing Minoprio to sail in to an insurmountable 8-length lead at the second top mark, and from there it was on to the Finals.
Minoprio was now up against Mathieu Richard and his French Match Racing Team/Team French Spirit, who had just come off a tough 2-1 series of his own against another antipodal young gun 23-year old Torvar Mirsky (AUS). While the teams switched boats, race managers switched the course around towards a late-building westerly Mistral, bringing with it some choppy wind waves on top of a 1-metre swell.
Αs the breeze started dying, and shifted even further right with the setting sun, starboard tack became difficult as the boats slammed head-on into waves often bigger than the wind. This put a premium on proper gear-shifting, and Minoprio and team did this well when it counted. After taking early control off the line to leeward of Richard at the start they simply extended away from the French to take and early lead and never looked back.
Meanwhile in Petite-Final action, Mirsky avenged his loss to Richard in the Semi's by defeating Iehl in straight matches 2-0.
Final Results
1st Adam Minoprio (NZL) ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing
2nd Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team/Team French Spirit
3rd Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team
4th Damien Iehl (FRA) French Match Racing Team
5th Ed Baird (USA) Alinghi
6th Sébastien Col (FRA) French Match Racing Team/K-Challenge
7th Paolo Cian (ITA) Team Shosholoza
8th Ian Williams (GBR) Bahrain Team Pindar
9th Philippe Presti (FRA) French Match Racing Team/Team French Spirit
10th Ian Ainslie (RSA) Team Proximo
11th Pierre Antoine Morvan (FRA) French Match Racing Team
12th Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Team Onboard
