Mirsky Racing Team bow out of the race for the 2009 World Match Racing Tour title.

Losing their quarter final to YANMAR Racing in a controversial series that saw it all come down to the wire, MRT could no longer challenge for the world title as ETNZ Blackmatch took the tour title when they defeated Matthieu Richard 3-0 in their quarter final match.

Despite not being able to take out the championship, MRT are still hunting for a podium finish in the World Championship.

“It’s a painful loss, but we still have a lot to fight for tomorrow with the new Invitation policy for the 2010 World Tour. As soon as we have finished business here, we will be moving straight onto next season and developing our plan of attack for next season.” Said Torvar Mirsky.

Tomorrow’s racing will commence at 10am Malaysian time. Follow the action at www.mirskyracingteam.net

RESULTS

Final:
ETNZ Blackmatch vs. Team Origin

Petite Final:
ALL4One vs. Yanmar Racing

5th – 8th:
Mirsky Racing Team
Team French Spirit
Waka Racing
French Match Racing Team

9th Victory Challenge
10th Team Azzura
11th Team Pindar
12th Yazwan Yazam

Mirsky Racing Team down 0-1 against four time World Champion Peter Gilmour, and his Yanmar Racing team in their first quarter final encounter at the 2009 Monsoon Cup.

Needing at least one more win to guarantee their place in the next stage MRT narrowly lead Swedish Americas Cup helmsman Magnus Holmberg around the course.

The Victory Challenge skipper made a risky gybe down the last run where MRT could not defend because of the tide, but sticking to their strategy MRT held their nerve and held their lead to right to the finish.

MRT placed 5th in the round robin, after a complicated four way count back for second place. Without a high enough placing MRT were unable to choose their opponent in the quarter final and were left to race Yanmar Racing.

Racing for the quarter finals got underway in the late afternoon where the two rivers of the Terengganu venue provided teams with a difficult racecourse.

MRT started slightly ahead of Yanmar Racing with a slight advantage off the line, a big split up the first work saw the teams meet at the top mark with MRT edging ahead and holding Yanmar Racing out at the top mark.

Another split on the next upwind saw Yanmar Racing overtake on the tricky racecourse. Unable to work their way back into the race, MRT lost their first race of the quarter finals.

Racing will commence again tomorrow where the quarter finals will be decided and MRT continue their charge to win the World Match Racing Tour.

Results:

• Mirsky Racing Team AUS vs. Yanmar Racing AUS 0 – 1
• ETNZ Blackmatch NZL vs. French Team Spirit FRA 1 – 0
• Team Origin GBR vs. French Match Racing Team FRA 1 – 0
• All4One FRA vs. Waka Racing NZL 1 – 0
• 9th Victory Challenge (Magnus Holmberg) SWE
• 10th Team Azzura (Francesco Bruni) ITA
• 11th Team Pindar (Ian Williams) GBR
• 12th Taring Pelangi TESA (Hazim Hazwan) MAS

Strong currents and varible winds in Terengganu, saw some big upsets today with current world champions Bahrain Team  Pindar having a lot on in order to make it to the quarter final stage.

MRT first faced young Kiwi team Waka Racing, lead by Phil Robertson. Waka Racing capitalized on an MRT mistake in the  prestart and had the advantage off the line. Once Waka Racing had secured the right side of the course, MRT didn’t get a  glimpse of the lead.

Although the loss to the young kiwi’s was an upset, it proved that it was imperative to get out to the right side of the course straight off the line. With this in mind, MRT went on to defeat the local hero Hazim Hazwan.

The final race saw the two teams on top of the Tour BlackMatch Racing and MRT, face off in a fiery match. BlackMatch Racing won the start, winning the right side of the course, however they incurred a penalty so needed to keep the lead. With a new level of intensity the Australian’s fought hard to take the lead at the top mark, and despite a few close calls around the track, MRT took the win.

“It was an excellent win for us!” said an elated tactician Kyle Langford. “We always have close races, and it was only a small mistake by them up the first work that gave us the lead. We are stoked, but at the same time it’s just one race, and we still have three more hard races before we can start thinking about the World Tour trophy.”

Tomorrow’s racing will see the conclusion of the round robin, and the teams turn up the heat as their grasp on the World Match Racing Tour gets closer.

RESULTS:

• Team Origin – Ben Ainslie 7 wins 2 losses
• Waka Racing – Phil Robertson 6 wins 3 losses
• French Match racing – Mathieu Richard 6 wins 3 losses
• Mirsky Racing Team – Torvar Mirsky 5 wins 3 losses
• Victory Challenge – Magnus Holmberg 5 wins 3 losses
• ALL4ONE – Sebastien Col 5 wins 3 losses
• YANMAR Racing – Peter Gilmour 4 wins 4 losses
• BlackMatch Racing – Adam Minoprio 4 wins 4 losses
• French Match Racing – Damien Iehl 4 wins 5 losses
• Team Azzura – Francesco Bruni 3 wins 6 losses
• Bahrain Team Pindar – Ian Williams 3 wins 6 losses
• Taring Pelangi – Hazwan Hazim 0 wins 9 losses

Leading the scoreboard after the first day is four teams, all of which are in the running for the overall tour victory. Mirsky Racing Team, Blackmatch ETNZ, Yanmar Racing and Team Origin all sit with 3 wins and 1 loss at the commencement of racing today.

Most races today saw the team who won the start, hold their lead and generally finish ahead. “It’s a pretty one way track placing a lot of emphasis on the start” said Blackmatch bowman Nick Blackman who managed to edge a win over Team Origin in the last race of the day.

MRT had a successful day as they defeated Azzura, All4One and current World Champions Team Pindar.

Team French Spirit helmed by Matthieu Richard but up a good fight against MRT as they started slightly advantaged and won the right hand side of the course. Showing why he is ranked number 3 in the world, Richard didnt let up as he defended his lead around the course to finish ahead of MRT and hand them their first loss of the regatta.

“It was a solid start to the regatta today, to share the leaderboard overnight with the other tour contenders is important for us. The win in the Aus Cup has given us some confidence and we are happy with how our teamwork is developing so far, we still need to take it one race at a time though as each race is very important” commented MRT helmsman Torvar Mirsky.

#Tomorrow morning the round robin stage will continue and with so much at stake, there is sure to be some fireworks.

• Adam Minoprio (NZL) ENTZ/Black Match Racing 3-1
• Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing 3-1
• Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing 3-1
• Ben Ainslie (GBR) Team Origin 3-1

• Damien Iehl (FRA) French Match Racing Team 3-2
• Sebastien Col (FRA) French Match Racing Team/ALL4ONE 2-1
• Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team 2-2
• Magnus Holmberg (SWE) Victory Challenge 2-2
• Francesco Bruni (ITA) Team Azzura 1-3
• Phil Robertson (NZL) Team New Zealand WAKA Racing 1-3
• Ian Williams (GBR) Team Pindar 1-3
• Hazwan Hazim Dermanwan (MAS) Tarian Pelangi TESA 0-4

The first to three point quarter final series went to 5 races with MRT finishing with 3 wins to Azzura’s 2.

The Italians came out firing early on showing the local team why they had been crowned champions in Nice last week.
With a fairly one sided course Bruni gained the advantage off the line in the first two races to comfortably sail to victory.

The Mirsky Racing Team composed themselves to come out in the third race to pick the shifts and defend an upwind assult by Azzura to keep them in the game.

Race four saw fireworks as Azzura was awarded a penalty on the first upwind for tacking too close to MRT, they maintained a slight lead throughout the race and chose to complete their penalty right on the finish line, unfortunately for Azzura, MRT was hot on their heels, and as Azzura was half way through their turn they collided with MRT ‘t-boning’ them and resulting in the Italians receiving another penalty awarding the race to the Aussies.

The damage caused in the incident also saw Azzura deducted a point for causing serious damage. This put the scores at 2-1 in favour of MRT.

With one more win needed to proceed to the next round, MRT dominated the prestart and held their lead throughout the course to finish off Azzura and eliminate them from the competition.

“It’s great to be on the winning side of such an experienced and professional team, they made us work for those last three races and to go through to the next stage in front of a home crowd is such thrill and we hope there will be more people down on Perth Waters tomorrow for the semi finals and finals” said Torvar Mirsky whilst enjoying the ‘MRT Floating Bar’ on Barrack St jetty.

Tomorrow MRT will choose their opponent in the semi finals out of local Keith Swinton and Black Swan Racing who knocked out current world champions Team Pindar today, world number one Adam Minoprio or triple gold medalist Ben Ainslie.

Tomorrows racing promises to be a spectacle so if you can make it down to the Barrack St jetty tomorrow around 1pm to support Western Australia’s local team where racing should kick off immediately.

• MRT def Azzura 3-1 (point deduction to Azzura)
• Black Swan Racing def Team Pindar 3-1 ETNZ
• Blackmatch def Team French Spirit 3-0
• Team Origin def Waka Racing 3-1

• 5th Team Pindar
• 6th Azzura
• 7th Team French Spirit
• 8th Waka Racing
• 9th CYCA

10th KA Match

Coming out focused and fired up in the morning, MRT took the first race off Team Origin whilst inflicting a double penalty and comfortably sailing to victory. With momentum on MRT’s side, they went out to push Ainslie in the second race of the day and secure another win to even up the scores at 2-2.

The fifth and final race was a showstopper with MRT pushing the Brits the whole way round, but they didn’t slip up and went on to take the Australians out of the competition.

With World Tour points at stake, MRT still needed to finish as high as possible, but in the 5th-8th sail off they were out sailed by last years winner Johnnie Berntsson and local star Blythe Walker to finish in 8th position.

MRT has been relegated to 2nd place on the World Match Racing Tour standings and going into the final in Malaysia they will still have a shot at the World Championship title.

“A lot of things didn’t go our way this week, but we sailed well and only just missed out on the semi’s to Team Origin. We have a lot of work to do in Malaysia, but we are still well in touch with BlackMatch and with a good result we will be able to take out this year’s championship” said Mirsky who is now making his way back to Perth to begin training up for the finals in December.

Article by Kyle Langford

Two races of the quarter final series were completed this afternoon, and despite going through the repacharge undefeated, MRT went down in both races against three time Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie.

The first race saw MRT leading Team Origin throughout the race, but the umpires made a controversial decision and penalised MRT because they thought they had infringed with a boat from another match. This meant that they had to slow the game down and try to wipe their penalty on the final run, but Ainslie worked into a strong position and took the win.

With MRT up against the ropes, the racing was postponed until tomorrow which gives the team a chance to regroup and regain focus.

“It’s a tough position to be in” said tactician Kyle Langford “but we still have to do the same thing as we did this morning. We are sailing really well, but the long day out on the water brought out some small mistakes and the Origin guys didn’t let us get away with anything.”

With tomorrow’s forecast predicting much of the same as today, MRT will be looking to turn up the heat and take down the sailing giants from Origin, and continue taking steps towards holding the Argo Group Bermuda Gold Cup above their heads.

MRT scrape through to the repechage round of the Bermuda Gold Cup.

After a disappointing second half of the round robin, MRT failed to qualify immediately for the quarter finals after losing three straight races.

The final race of the round, a derby match against Black Swan Racing, Keith Swinton from South of Perth Yacht Club saw MRT receive a penalty in the prestart, Black Swan Racing had the advantage off the line but MRT fought back to take the lead.

Unable to extend and clear their penalty, Swinton narrowly sneaked in on a mark trap laid by MRT to end their chances of fasttracking to the next stage.

Nevertheless, MRT managed to have enough points to go into the ‘second chance’ repechage round where the top two teams will make up the deciding two spots in the quarter finals.

“The repechage round allows us to have an extra five races, so if we can make it through this round it will put us in a good position going into the quarter finals” commented Spence.

Keen to find some form, MRT came out in the first two races of the repechage with victories, comfortably defeating America Dave Perry then inflicting a black flag on France’s Damien Iehl.

With three races remaining in the repechage, MRT need to secure at least two more wins in order to stay in the fight for the Gold Cup title.