Australian Peter Gilmour has taken the lead on the Swedish Match Tour 2003/2004 Rankings. A win at last week’s Investors Guaranty Presentation of the King Edward VII Gold Cup in Bermuda, where Gilmour and his Pizza-La Sailing Team collected 25 points, has moved the four-time America’s Cup veteran into first place on the world’s premier professional sailing series rankings.

It is the first time since the conclusion of the third event on the inaugural Swedish Match Tour, the ACI HT Mobile Cup in May 2000, that Gilmour has been on top.

Gilmour commented: “Our Pizza-La Sailing Team has been off the Swedish Match Tour for the last two years, as I’d been focused on my responsibilities with the OneWorld Challenge. Thanks to the wonderful support of our sponsor, Pizza-La, we’re going to commit ourselves to the Swedish Match Tour for the next year and do our best and have some fun with it.”

In second place is the reigning Swedish Match Tour champion, Jesper Radich of Denmark. Radich began Swedish Match Tour 2003/2004 with a fourth place finish in Denmark, losing to Gilmour in the petit finals sail-off, and then defeating New Zealand’s Dean Barker of the Omega Match Racing Team in the sail-offs in Bermuda.

Sweden’s Magnus Holmberg of Team Continental Airlines is in third place courtesy of his win in Denmark. Holmberg was an unseeded skipper in Bermuda and failed to advance out of the qualifying round, resulting in no points being added to his ranking.

Tied for fourth are the two runner-ups in the first two events of the year, Oracle BMW Racing’s Chris Dickson and Denmark’s Jesper Bank, former helmsman for the Victory Challenge.

A trio of Kiwis round out the rankings. Barker is currently in sixth, following his fourth place finish in Bermuda and three-time America’s Cup winner Russell Coutts of the Alinghi Team and countryman Kelvin Harrap are tied for seventh on 10 points.

Current Swedish Match Tour 2003/2004 Rankings

1.Peter Gilmour, AUS/Pizza-La Sailing Team 40

2.Jesper Radich, DEN/Team Radich 27

3.Magnus Holmberg, SWE/Team Continental Airlines 25

4. equal Jesper Bank, Denmark 20

4. equal Chris Dickson, Oracle BMW Racing Team 20

6.Dean Barker, NZ/Omega Match Racing Team 12

7. equal Russell Coutts, Alinghi Team 10

7.equal Kelvin Harrap, New Zealand 10