The knockout begins at the St. Moritz Match Race

St. Moritz, Switzerland – 4 September 2010 – The top teams in the World Match Racing Tour are making final preparations for the brutal round of quarter-final knockouts. The first team in each pair to score three points will join double ISAF Match Racing World Champion Ian Williams (GBR) Team GAC Pindar in the semi-finals.

Pairings are as follows:

Ben Ainslie (GBR) TEAMORIGIN vs Björn Hansen (SWE) Hansen Global Team

Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team vs Bertrand Pacé (FRA) Aleph Sailing Team

Adam Minoprio (NZL) ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing vs Damien Iehl (FRA) French Match Racing Team

Last year’s St. Moritz Match Race winner, Adam Minoprio sums up the feelings of the skippers: “With the quality of the sailors here, and the challenging conditions on the lake, there are no easy draws – it’s equally tough for everyone.”

Matthieu Richard chose to face off fellow French skipper Bernard Pacé: “It was not an easy decision – we would have liked to sail against Björn, but Ben had the first choice. The last time we raced Adam in the quarter-finals he won, and we didn’t want to risk that again. So we were left the other French teams, and we perform better against Bertrand than against Damien.”

Right now teams are waiting for the thermal Maloja wind to reach St. Moritz Lake – racing is expected to get underway shortly after midday.