After a day of semi-finals that grew in pace and excitement, Sunday (7 June started flat, grey and uninteresting, and looked like staying that way. The start of the finals match between Williams and Cian was scheduled for 1400 hrs, but the race course was just a grey glass-out with no sign of any breeze at all – not even the small shifty zephyrs that had allowed the 5th-8th place sail-offs go through. Playing a waiting game out on the water, Cian was working hard to stay optimistic – if the finals were canned due to lack of breeze then the Korea Match Cup would be decided on the performances in the Round Robin – handing a win to Ian Williams (8 pts) against the Italian’s five wins that allowed him to just squeak into the quarter-finals. At 1450 hrs there was some sign of sunshine – an ingredient that encouraged a little sea breeze. Cian put up a spinnaker and sailed around slowly, as if to demonstrate to the Race Committee that there was enough breeze to get things started, and at 1530 hrs racing did indeed get under way.Both boats hit the line together for a split-tack start with Cian going to the right. Williams gybe-set for a separation, found some pressure on the right and smoked into the bottom pin. But Williams then earned a penalty. Williams crossed ahead of Cian on the upwind leg, but had to execute his penalty. So Cian sailed gently down to his seventh win in a row.
Race 2 began with a slow motion dial-up. Both boats started together on port, Cian at the boat end. Williams went right, and led all the way down the run. Williams crossed Cian from the right coming into the finish and gybed into the line. Match squared at 1-1.
With one-all, the third race was a sudden death. Cian calmly controlled most of the pre-start, with Williams wriggling to get away. Williams started with pace, and split away to the right, followed by Cian. Williams went for the gybe-set plit-and-come-back-from-the-right option, but just couldn’t find enough breeze to make it work, and watched the soft-touch Italian ghost across the line 15 secs or so in the lead.
At US$240,000, the Korea Match Cup is the richest purse on the World Match Race Tour. A good deal more champagne was soon sprayed on stage in front of the Closing Ceremony crowd, and the giant cheques were presented by the Governor of Gyeonggi Province, Kim Moon-Soo. It had been a desperately slow start to the day, but it finished in cracking style.
OVERALL RESULTS
1st Paolo Cian (ITA) Team Shosholoza
2nd Ian Williams (GBR) Bahrain Team Pindar
3rd Ben Ainslie (GBR) Team Origin
4th Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Team Onboard
5th Adam Minoprio (NZL) ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing
6th Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing
7th Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing
8th Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team
9th Sebastien Col (FRA) French Match Racing Team/K-Challenge
10th Laurie Jury (NZL)
11th Philippe Presti (ITA) French Match Racing Team
12th Byeong Ki Park (KOR)
