Cream rising at Congressional Cup

Long Beach, CA (April 27, 2024) – The eight teams that advanced to the knock-out rounds of the Congressional Cup began with the top four from the double round robin series – Ian Williams (GBR), Jeppe Borch (DEN), Dave Hood (USA), and Gavin Brady (USA) – which then waited for the four teams that would survive the repechage stage yesterday.

That group was confirmed yesterday as Australia’s Cole Tapper, USA’s Chris Poole, New Zealand’s Nick Egnot-Johnson, and Switzerland’s Eric Monnin.

After three days of competition, today began the quarter-final stage of the event, with the top four teams advancing to the semi-finals. Defending Congressional Cup champion Chris Poole (USA) remained on a roll and was joined by five-time Congressional Cup champion Great Britain’s Ian Williams, Switzerland’s Eric Monnin, and New Zealand’s Nick Egnot-Johnson.

That stage started today as well, with Poole and Williams both leading their semi-finals matches 2-0 against their respective opponents Monnin and Egnot-Johnson.

Day recap:
The day kicked off with the concluding races of the quarter-finals in clear skies and a steady 8-10 knot south-westerly breeze. Williams /Gladstone’s Long Beach and Monnin /Capvis Swiss Match Racing Team asserted their dominance, each clinching three straight victories over their opponents, Australia’s Cole Tapper and Denmark’s Jeppe Borch.

Monnin commented on the quarter-final racing, “The goal for this season was to do better in the quarter-finals, which we just squeezed into in this regatta. We were able to improve our game and now we have to focus on the semi-finals. Now, we just have to win three races in a row tomorrow.”

In the remaining quarter-final pairings, Chris Poole /Riptide Racing won the first race and only dropped one race to opponent Gavin Brady /True Blue Racing USA before rebounding and winning the next two races, securing his spot in the semi-finals.

A tense battle unfolded in the last quarter-final pairing between Dave Hood /DH3 Racing and Nick Egnot-Johnson /KNOTS Racing. The racing stretched to the full five races in the first-to-three point match. Leveled at 2-2 with a deciding race to determine which team would advance to the semi-finals, it came down to the bottom gate in the last race. With Hood leading Egnot-Johnson, both teams split at the bottom gate, Egnot-Johnson choosing the favored left hand side and overtaking Hood to the finish.

“We have had an amazing week of sailing,” commented Hood. “It was a tough day today, we really had Nick [Egnot-Johnson] on that last race, and it came down to that last left turn, when we went out for a right shift we thought was there, but wasn’t.”

Tomorrow’s racing will begin with what is left of the semi-finals before the finals match where the two top teams will battle it out for the coveted Crimson Blazer.

Racing is being held April 24-28, beginning with a round robin stage to advance the top teams for the knock-out matches.

Tour information – Event details – Results – Facebook

Founded in 2000, the World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) promotes the sport of match racing around the world and is the longest running global professional series in the sport of sailing. The winner of the WMRT each year is crowned World Sailing Match Racing World Champion.

Previous champions include Sir Ben Ainslie (GBR), Taylor Canfield (USA), Peter Gilmour (AUS), Magnus Holmberg (SWE), Peter Holmberg (ISV), Adam Minoprio (NZL), Torvar Mirsky (AUS), Bertrand Pace (FRA), Jesper Radich (DEN), Phil Robertson (NZL), and Ian Williams (GBR).

Since inception, the World Match Racing Tour and its events have awarded over USD23million in prize money to sailors which has helped to contribute to the career pathway of many of today’s professional sailors.

Source: LBYC