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Five skippers, Sebastien COL (FRA), Mathieu RICHARD (FRA), Bjorn HANSEN (SWE), Ian WILLIAMS (GBR) and Philippe PRESTI (FRA), won two of their three matches and Paolo CIAN (ITA) and Staffan LINDBERG (FIN) each had one win while Sally BARKOW (USA), Eugeny NEUGODNIKOV (RUS) and Alvaro MARINHO (POR) suffered three defeats apiece.

It was a day of mixed wind conditions; the early westerly breeze gave way to a shifting northerly at the end of the third flight, but the race officer waited until this had largely settled before resuming the racing. No flights suffered as a result of the change but there were many close matches with all the match racing gambits employed.

Gavin BRADY was made to fight hard for his third victory by NEUGODNIKOV. The Russian skipper had the better start and headed to the left in search of more pressure. He found it and led at the first mark, and held on grimly down the run. BRADY attacked, using every wind shift to his advantage, to scrape around the windward mark with the narrowest of leads, which he held on the run to the finish.

Ian WILLIAMS and his Pindar Racing Team was in the thick of it, imposing a penalty on MARINHO during a luffing match, from which he emerged with sufficient lead to win. He was back in it again in his third match, against Philippe PRESTI when he 'escorted' the Frenchman out to the right hand side of the final downwind leg, neither boat hoisting a spinnaker, and set about a gybing duel with luffs that kept on for most of the leg, at least until WILLIAMS judged that he was in the right position to offload a penalty. He did so and beat his opponent to the finish line.

Peter GILMOUR was also pushed to the limit of his experience, but also relied on a mistake by WILLIAMS in their match. At the windward mark, WILLIAMS dialled-down to try to penalise GILMOUR, who had rounded, but hit the mark and became the victim of a self-imposed penalty.

In his final match, against MARINHO, GILMOUR was penalised and as he tried to offload it, MARINHO compounded the issue by a blatant foul that led to a red flag penalty. GILMOUR sailed away as his opponent did his turn, and took his own penalty at the finish line.

There are still four flights of the round robin and the five flights of the repêcharge for the last three skippers in each of the two groups in the round robin, before the quarter-finals begin on Friday.

Results:

Group A:

1. Gavin BRADY (USA) 3-0
2. Sebastien COL (FRA) 2-1
3. Mathieu RICHARD FRA) 2-1
4. Bjorn HANSEN (SWE) 2-1
5. Sally BARKOW (USA) 0-3
6. Eugeny NEUGODNIKOV (RUS) 0-3

Group B:

1. Peter GILMOUR (AUS) 3-0
2. Ian WILLIAMS (GBR) 2-1
3. Philippe PRESTI (FRA) 2-1
4. Paolo CIAN (ITA) 1-2
5. Staffan LINDBERG (FIN) 1-2
6. Alvaro MARINHO (POR) 0-3

ISAF Match Racing World Championship Standings
(After Stage 8)

The World Match Racing Tour is an ISAF Special Event. Skippers earn points towards the World Championship at the nine events of the World Tour and the highest scoring skipper at the end of the season is the ISAF Match Racing World Champion.

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For more information on the World Match Racing Tour, its competitors and events, visit the official World Tour website - www.WorldMatchRacingTour.com. World Match Racing Tour television programmes may be viewed on demand by clicking on the television icon on the home page of the website.

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