The fight to secure a semi final place in the Danish Open went down to the last match of the Round Robin.

As predicted from yesterdays results the teams have been going all out to make the semi final cut. The results of the last three matches were critical to decide the semi final places. There were potentially 7 teams that were in the hunt for the 4 places during the last flight.

The tension was mounting all afternoon as racing was suspended at 1400 due to a lack of wind. After a three and a half hour wait the last flight resumed during a thunderstorm.

With the rain pouring down Peter Wibroe and Bjorn Hansen had a sudden death match with a loss by either meaning elimination and a win by either would guarantee them a place in the semi finals. Wibroe took the bull by the horns and led from the start.

On the second upwind leg Hansen fought back resulting in a luffing match. In a move used by Wibroe to good effect a number of times in this event he dropped his jib and kept control of the match, staying ahead to the finish, much to the delight of the home crowd.

With only a win being good enough to make the cut Jesper Bank had his back to the wall. Philippe Presti led from start to finish and held off a late charge from Bank which saw the boats overlapped on the finish line continuing an unsuccessful year so far for the triple Olympic medalist.

Going into the last match of the Round Robin the final ranking was still undecided. Ironically win or lose Col was through but the result was critical to Bank and Williams. Williams was ashore having done the calculations and found himself cheering for Col. Col didn’t disappoint Team Pindar as he sailed away from Mathieu Richard to a comfortable win.

At tonight’s gala dinner Jesper Radich will announce his choice of semi final opponent which may see Col up against their recently enthusiastic supporters, Ian Williams’ Team Pindar.

Boats and side of entry will be drawn at the briefing tomorrow morning.

Results

Flight 16 : Sebastian Col def. Staffan Lindberg - Paolo Cian def. Jesper Bank - Rasmus Viltoft def. Björn Hansen

Flight 17 : Ian Williams def. Paolo Cian - Jesper Radich def. Rasmus Viltoft - Staffan Lindberg def. Sten Mohr

Flight 18 : Sten Mohr def. Paolo Cian - Jesper Radich def. Staffan Lindberg - Ian Williams def. Rasmus Viltoft

Flight 19 : Jesper Radich def. Paolo Cian - Ian Williams def. Staffan Lindberg - Sten Mohr def. Rasmus Viltoft

Flight 20 : Philippe Presti def. Sebastian Col - Björn Hansen def. Mathieu Richard - Jesper Bank def. Peter Wibroe

Flight 21 : Björn Hansen def. Philippe Presti - Sebastian Col def. Peter Wibroe - Mathieu Richard def. Jesper Bank

Flight 22 : Peter Wibroe def. Björn Hansen - Philippe Presti def. Jesper Bank - Sebastian Col def. Mathieu Richard