Great Britain’s Chris Law of The Outlaws used a brilliant pre-start in the fifth and decisive match of the Swedish Match Cup finals to claim the championship of the last event on Swedish Match Tour 2002/2003.

“This is a finely tuned Formula 1 engine that I’ve had the privilege to drive this week,” said Law of his crew of Victory Challenge sailors. “It’s a result of the guys I’ve had with me. Match racing is a team sport and while at times this year I’ve been average, these guys have made the difference this week.

Sailing with Law at the Swedish Match Cup were Daniel Bjorndahl, Anders Dahlsjo, Oscar Angervall and Henrik Valderyd.

After winning the first two matches of the first-to-three points final, Law lost the third match after a penalty in the pre-start and then allowed that miscue to get him off-track in the fourth as well.

“You gotta keep cool when a final stretches to five matches. This is a very tricky place to sail and we’ve sailed our own game this week, but in the last match we went back to basic match racing tactics,” explained Law.

“I was actually surprised how well Chris manoeuvred in the pre-start of the fifth match, staying behind us the whole time,” said Jablonski. “Chris was the better sailor in the fifth race and the better sailor won.”

This is Law’s second win on Swedish Match Tour 2002/2003 to go along with the 2002 UBS Challenge in Newport, RI, USA.

Jablonski’s runner-up finish here catapulted him up the Swedish Match Tour Final Rankings from eighth place overall pre-event to fifth place, paying out an $US18,000 share of the US$200,000 prize purse, while Law moved up from fifth to fourth overall.

In the petit finals, US Virgin Islander Peter Holmberg of Team Pelle Petterson Yachting defeated Denmark’s Jesper Bank, a double Olympic gold medallist and former helmsman for the Victory Challenge 2-1 to finish third in his first appearance on the Swedish Match Tour since completing his obligations as helmsman for the Oracle BMW Racing Team in America’s Cup 2003.

“We’re very happy with third place,” said Holmberg. “We didn’t sail together for six months after the Cup ended. It was fun to get back together and see that we could still ride the bike.”

In the sail-offs, Australia’s Peter Gilmour of Team Pizza La swept past Sweden’s Mattias Rahm of Team Stena Bulk 2-0, while Australia’s James Spithill dispatched newly crowned Swedish Match Tour champion Jesper Radich of Denmark, 2-1.

“When it was decided that we won the Swedish Match Tour, we lost some concentration,” confessed Radich. “The key to our success this year has been the crew. They have been very dedicated. Some of the events we have done poorly, but we’ve also won three events this year.”

Swedish Match Tour 2003/2004 begins next month with the Danish Open 2003, August 12-16. An announcement will be made shortly regarding the full schedule for Swedish Match Tour 2003/2004.

Overall Results

Swedish Match Cup

1.Chris Law, Great Britain/”The Outlaws”

2.Karol Jablonski, POL/Jablonski Sailing Team

3.Peter Holmberg, USVI/Team Pelle Petterson Yachting

4.Jesper Bank, Denmark

5.James Spithill, AUS/Team Spithill

6.Jesper Radich, Denmark

7.Peter Gilmour, AUS/Team Pizza-La

8.Mattias Rahm, SWE/Team Stena Bulk

9.Staffan Lindberg, Finland

10.Andy Beadsworth, GBR/Team Henri Lloyd

11.Magnus Holmberg, SWE/Team StoraEnso

12.Paolo Cian, ITA/Riviera di Rimini Sailing Team

13.Johnnie Berntsson, Sweden

14.Mikael Lindqvist, Sweden

15.Ed Baird, USA/Team Musto

16.Jes Gram-Hansen, DEN/Team Victory Lane

Swedish Match Tour

1.Jesper Radich, Denmark 109 US$60,000

2.James Spithill, AUS/Team Spithill 96 US$40,000

3.Jes Gram-Hansen, DEN/Team Victory Lane 84 US$25,000

4.Chris Law, GBR/”The Outlaws” 76 US$20,000

5.Karol Jablonski, POL/Jablonski Sailing Team 66 US$18,000

6.Ed Baird, USA/Team Musto 57 US$15,000

7.Magnus Holmberg, SWE/Team StoraEnso 50 US$12,000

8.Paolo Cian, ITA/Riviera di Rimini Sailing Team 47 US$10,000