Even though the 60,000 dollars first prize has been clinched by Sweden's Magnus Holmberg and his Team Stora Enso match race crew there is still 140,000 dollars in the balance at the Swedish Match Tour's final event on 2 July
Even though the 60,000 dollars first prize has been clinched by Sweden’s Magnus Holmberg and his Team Stora Enso match race crew there is still 140,000 dollars in the balance at the Swedish Match Tour’s final event, the Swedish Match Cup in Marstrand, Sweden, July 2-8, 2001.
With just 19 points separating the skippers currently occupying places 2-6, and with all of them competing in Marstrand, more than just pride is on the line for these five America’s Cup Class boats.
Holmberg led Swedish Match Tour Year 2 wire-to-wire beginning on a dominant note by winning the first two events, the Trofeo Challenge Roberto Trombini in Ravenna, Italy and the Danish Open 2000 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Holmberg and his crew defeated Dane Sten Mohr, currently holding the eighth and final spot on the Swedish Match Tour Leaderboard, two races to one on the Adriatic Sea.
From Ravenna, Holmberg led his team to a dominant three race sweep of Swedish Match Tour Year 1 Champion Bertrand Pace off the coast of Denmark, opening a 18-point lead he would never relinquish.
Holmberg then stumbled a bit at the Colorcraft Gold Cup in Bermuda in October.
His winning streak ended at two regattas as Russell Coutts of the Swiss Challenge defeated Chris Dickson of the Oracle Racing Team to claim his sixth Gold Cup championship.
Holmberg finished in a seventh place tie with Dickson’s Oracle Racing teammate Peter Holmberg.
Holmberg then posted back-to-back fourth place finishes at the Steinlager Line 7 Cup and Sun Microsystems Australia Cup to lengthen his lead over Pace who, by winning the Steinlager Line 7 Cup, entrenched himself in second place.
Holmberg’s third place finish at the Swedish Match Tour’s sixth event, the ACI Ronhill Cup in Croatia, coupled with Pace’s decision not to contest the Match Race Lake Constance presented by Volvo in Langenargen, Germany, clinched the Tour Year 2 Championship for the Swede.
Spanning the globe, the Swedish Match Grand Prix Sailing Tour is comprised of eight of the world’s leading professional sailing events and is proving to be the ultimate battleground of sailing.
In addition to over 400,000 dollars in individual event prize money, the Swedish Match Grand Prix Sailing Tour awards 200,000 dollars to the top eight sailors on the Tour.
The overall winners are determined by a point system based on a sailor’s best six of eight finishes, with the first-place skipper netting 60,000 dollars.
Credit: www.swedishmatchgp.com