There’s a new ‘King of the Mountain’ after Ian Williams and his Team Pindar nipped past Mark Mendelblatt’s Team Kaenon in the fifth and deciding match at the St. Moritz Match Race. Williams made his passing move just metres from the finishing line to win the Swiss stop on the World Match Racing Tour.
 

Although Matthieu Richard still leads the race for Match Racing World Championships it was Bjorn Hansen and his Onico Team that moved up nine places from thirteenth to fourth place in the Match Racing World Championship leaderboard by winning Match Cup Sweden in impressive style.

The finals were a test of survival as Hansen defeated America’s Cup skipper Magnus Holmberg of Victory Challenge. Holmberg received 20 points for his second place finish, which moved him from fifteenth place to seventh tied with Ed Baird of Alinghi.

Matthieu Richard of France extended his lead at the top of the leaderboard with a sixth place finish adding another eight points to give him a total of seventy eight. Unfortunately for the second event in a row Pindar Racing’s Ian Williams was unable to score any points but still remains in the top three in third place with sixty two points. The leaderboard also shows Peter Gilmour, two time Match Racing World Tour Champion dropping out of the top ten for the first time this season. Gilmour and his PST team are scheduled to sail in the next event on the Tour in Portugal.

The next stage marks the ninth stage of sixteen on the 2007 World Tour and the first event where skippers will be able to start dropping their worst scores. The Match Racing World Championship is decided by skippers counting there best eight finishes of the sixteen stages. 100 points are given out to the top eight finishers at each World Tour event except for the final event of the Tour, the Monsoon Cup in Malaysia which counts double (200 points) and cannot be discarded.

The next event on the World Tour is the Troia Portugal Match Cup in Troia, Portugal scheduled for July 24-29.

ISAF World Match Racing Championship Standings (Top 8)
(After Stage 8 of 16)
1. Mathieu RICHARD (FRA) Saba Sailing Team, 78 points
2. Paolo CIAN (ITA) Team Shosholoza, 66 points
3. Ian WILIAMS (GBR) Team Pindar, 62 points
4. Bjorn HANSEN (SWE) Team Onico, 49 points
5. Sébastien COL (FRA) Areva Challenge, 47 points
6. Jesper BANK (DEN) United Internet Team Germany, 45 points
7. Ed BAIRD (USA) Alinghi, 40 points
8. Magnus HOLMBERG (SWE) Victory Challenge, 40 points