19 June,2009 – After a long day stretched to the limits of sunset, Round Robin racing has been completed along with three flights of two pairs in the Quarter Final stage. Eight teams have advanced to this next stage in the competition out of 12 who came here for a slice of the 50,000 Euro prize money purse at the beautiful Troia Resort. After a fitful start in the morning and an entire flight of matches abandoned for lack of wind, the westerly seabreeze finally filled to perfect strength, with 8-14 knots available all afternoon to complete the six flights of three matches left in the Round Robin. Emerging from the pack as winner of this stage on the strength of 9 wins was Philippe Presti, though he went 1-1 on the day. His success in this stage was also due to a tie-break with fellow member of the French Match Racing Team Mathieu Richard. Others advancing to the Quarter-Finals include Peter Gilmour, Ian Williams, Adam Minoprio, Sebastian Col, Torvar Mirsky and Bjorn Hansen.
20 June, 2009 – After a long first-to-three point Quarter-Final series, four teams have emerged on top to compete in next day Semi-Final stage. The four Semi-Finalists are Adam Minoprio (NZL) and his Emirates Team New Zealand/BlackMatch team, Ian Williams (GBR) and his Bahrain Team Pindar, Mathieu Richard (FRA) and his French Match Racing Team, and Torvar Mirsky (AUS) and his Mirsky Racing Team.
One pair that went to five matches had the oldest and youngest skippers veteran Peter Gilmour, against Adam Minoprio. International umpire team was busy with numerous whistles and penalty flags in nearly all their matches. The 8-10 knot wind conditions were perfect for tight manoeuvring. Another particularly aggressive pair was the match-up between Ian Williams and Sebastian Col. Col had a good start to the series, winning their first match, but this ignited Williams determination, taking three straight.
21 June 2009 – In only their second full season on the World Match Racing Tour, Torvar Mirsky (AUS) and his Mirsky Racing Team. claimed their first win at the Troia Portugal Match Cup. Victory here for the 24-year old skipper puts him in company with other world-famous match racing legends who have been champions at this event, including Peter Gilmour, Chris Dickson, Peter Holmberg, and Ed Baird. Mirsky took his fellow antipodean Adam Minoprio in just two matches of the first-to-two point Final, displaying a smooth sailing style and impeccable sense of timing both in the pre-starts and around the track. And while the first match of the Final was decided fairly early in the game as Mirsky took and extended on his winning start, the second match was far from easy.
On the strength of an exciting 2-1 win over Richard in the Petite-Finals, Ian Williams jumped up to the runner-up position.
