Victory Challenge’s Jesper Bank and Poland’s Karol Jablonski and his MK Café match race team each recorded three wins on the second day of round robin competition at the Swedish Match Cup, Swedish Match Tour 2001/2’s final event writes Shawn McBride.

Their three wins yesterday gave them matching overall records of 6-1, and provided them the opportunity to advance to face Russell Coutts of the Alinghi Team and Denmark’s Jes Gram-Hansen and his Victory Lane match race team in a first-to-two wins sail-off for the right to participate in the quarterfinals.

In the sail-off to determine top seeding for today’s second stage quarterfinals qualification series, Coutts defeated Gram-Hansen 2-1, in a thrilling three-match series. Coutts won the first match but the Danish amateurs responded by winning the second. Gram-Hansen then won the start of match three and led for the first three legs before the America’s Cup veteran rolled the Victory Lane crew just before the finish and edged them out at the line.

Round Robin Results

1. Jesper Bank, Victory Challenge, 6-1

2. Karol Jablonski, POL/Team MK Café, 6-1

3. Mattias Rahm, SWE/Team StoraEnso, 5-2

4. Bjorn Hansen, SWE/Team GOL Sailing, 4-3

5. Andrew Arbuzow, Russia, 3-4

6. Jochen Schumann, Alinghi Team, 3-4

7. Staffan Lindberg, Finland, 1-6

8. Mikael Lindqvist, Sweden, 0-7