Russell Coutts, America’s Cup winning helmsman, will be among the starters for the opening day of the ISAF Match Racing World Championship tomorrow in Riva del Garda.

The event, to be sailed in on windward/leeward courses in BLUSail 24 Sport one-designs, will run on a double round-robin basis, where all skippers sail each other twice. The top four skippers from the round-robins will then race each other in a best-of-three knock out semi-final series.

The two losers of the semi-final will then race against each other in a best-of-three petite final series, in order to determine third and fourth placing.

The two winning skippers of the semi-final will then race againts each other in a best-of-three series to determine the world champion.

Entry list

1. Russell Coutts, New Zealand – 161st in the ISAF ranking list (published on July 8, 2003)

2. Karol Jablonski, Poland – 1st

3. Jesper Radich, Denmark – 2nd

4. Jes Gram-Hansen, Denmark – 3rd

5. Ed Baird, USA – 4th

6. James Spithill, Australia – 5th

7. Bjorn Hansen, Sweden – 7th

8. Mathieu Richard, France – 8th

9. Staffan Lindberg, Finland – 9th

10. Mikael Lindqvist, Sweden – 10th

11. Ian Williams, UK – 11th

12. Paolo Cian, Italy – 12th