In a dramatic all-French finale, Mathieu Richard has defeated Philippe Presti to win the Vitoria Brasil Sailing Cup.

Richard and his team of Yannick Simon, Olivier Herledant, Greg Evrard, Thierry Briend have also vaulted into the lead of the World Match Racing Tour standings, putting former leader Ian Williams (GBR) of Team Pindar into second position, now 8 points behind Richard.

"It was fantastic to win here today, but very tough sailing in the huge waves," said Richard. "We are excited to go to Malaysia and the World Championship event next week."

The Monsoon Cup will be the final stage in the ’06-’07 World Match Racing Tour, and is one of the richest, featuring a MYR 1 million (about $275,000) purse in total prize money. For their efforts today, Richard and his team have won the top $50,000.00 prize, one third of the total purse of $150,000.00.

Presti and his team of Israël Erwan, Falxa Julien, Husson Xavier, Andre Gilles fought well against Richard in the final. As the two teams entered the final race with a 2-2 score, Presti took an early advantage and led Richard to the first windward mark.

Presti tacked early onto his layline for the mark and started to luff Richard at the mark, however Presti was stalled in the waves and was forced to tack away allowing Richard to sail over the top and take the lead to the finish.

To qualify for the Finals, Richard had to first get by Paolo Cian (ITA) of Team Shosholosa, but it took all five matches in the first-to-three point semi-final series. Cian won the first, and looked to win the second as well, but a starting recall error on the race committee boat forced abandonment of that match and a re-sail, which Richard won.

But Cian never gave up, winning the next two matches, and even when Richard won control off the start in the last match, Cian and team battled back all the way around the course.

This battling spirit served him well in the Petit-Finals, where he prevailed over Magnus Holmberg (SWE) of Victory Challenge in a series that went 2-1 in the Italian’s favour.

Final & Petit final Results

Flight 1 : Mathieu Richard def. Philippe Presti - Paolo Cian def. Magnus Holmberg

Flight 2 : Philippe Presti def. Mathieu Richard - Magnus Holmberg def. Paolo Cian

Flight 3 : Philippe Presti def. Mathieu Richard - Paolo Cian def. Magnus Holmberg

Flight 4 : Mathieu Richard def. Philippe Presti

Flight 5 : Mathieu Richard def. Philippe Presti

Semifinals results

Flight 1 : Magnus Holmberg def. Philippe Presti - Mathieu Richard def. Paolo Cian

Flight 2 : Philippe Presti def. Magnus Holmberg - Paolo Cian def. Mathieu Richard

Flight 3 : Philippe Presti def. Magnus Holmberg - Paolo Cian def. Mathieu Richard

Flight 4 : Philippe Presti def. Magnus Holmberg - Mathieu Richard def. Paolo Cian

Flight 5 : Mathieu Richard def. Paolo Cian