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Mattias Renker is the Swiss hero
at the St. Moritz Match Race on Thursday, after
winning his last two races in the Repechage Round
to sneak into the Quarter Finals.
Renker (SUI) completed the eight deep Quarter Final
field with his mid-afternoon win. But in early Quarter
Final racing, it’s defending champion Paolo Cian
(ITA) and two-time St. Moritz winner Mark Mendelblatt
(USA) who are in control of their match-ups.
Following the Repechage, the Race Committee elected
to start two of the Quarter Final match-ups. But
with just two and half Flights completed, the weather
finally turned in St. Moritz, with clouds rolling
in and the rain that had been threatening most of
the afternoon, becoming a damp reality. More importantly,
what had already been a shifty breeze, began to
die, forcing the conclusion of racing for the day.
In the early Quarter Final matches (which feature
the top four ranked sailors on the World Match Racing
Tour), defending champion Paolo Cian made an incredible
comeback through a fortuitous windshift on the final
leg of his first race against Mathieu Richard (FRA),
to steal a point.
Richard then made no mistake in the second match,
simply sailing away from Cian. But the plucky Italian
wasn’t finished; he won the very shifty third match
to sit on a 2-1 lead.
Meanwhile, Mark Mendelblatt didn’t miss a beat.
The American had to rely on his crewmate Cameron
Dunn to qualify him for the Quarter Finals yesterday.
But after arriving in the mountains late last night,
Mendelblatt sailed strongly against Sebastien Col,
jumping directly into the boat and out to a 2-0
lead in his Quarter Final.
Racing in all four of the Quarter Final match ups
will resume on Friday.
Quarts-de-finale (Premier à Trois Pts)
A - Ian Williams vs. Matthias Renker
B - Eric Monnin vs. Jochen Schuemann
C- Mark Mendelblatt def. Sébastien Col - Mark Mendelblatt
def. Sébastien Col
D - Paolo Cian def. Mathieu Richard - Mathieu Richard
def. Paolo Cian - Paolo Cian def. Mathieu Richard
Repéchage
Flight 1 : Renker def. Simoncelli - Neugodnikov
def. Hestbaek - Richard def. Lindberg
Flight 2 : Hestbaek def. Simoncelli - Lindberg def.
Renker - Richard def. Neugodnikov
Flight 3 : Hestbaek def. Lindberg - Richard def.
Renker - Simoncelli def. Neugodnikov
Flight 4 : Hestbaek def. Richard - Simoncelli def.
Lindberg - Renker def. Neugodnikov
Flight 5 : Richard def. Simoncelli - Renker def.
Hestbaek - Lindberg def. Neugodnikov
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