Shosholoza face Desafío Español on first day of Louis Vuitton Act 12 as both vie for fourth place in Challenger rankings

The pressure will be on from the outset of the Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 12 when South Africa's Team Shosholoza meet the Spanish home team, Desafío Español 2007, in their crucial first match race just three weeks away on Thursday 22 June.

According to South African skipper Mark SadlerSkipper of Team Shosholoza
, "it means no warm up. From the beginning we'll have to be on top form. Certainly we will be under a little bit more pressure because we beat Desafío Español in the last Acts. But this is fine, we can handle it".

Team Shosholoza won their match race against the Spanish in Act 10 but the Spanish placed higher overall finishing fifth to Shosholoza's eight. The South Africans then gained the upperhand in the Act 11 fleet racing event to finish sixth against Spain's ninth place.

This resulted in the two teams posting a tie for sixth place with an overall scoring of 12 points each for the 2006 America's Cup Class (ACC) Season Championship Ranking. But the South Africans won the tie break because of their match race win against Spain and are currently ranked sixth overall ahead of the Spanish in seventh place.

Louis Vuitton Act 12, which is being dubbed as a mini Louis Vuitton Cup, will see
each of the 12 America’s Cup teams sail each other in an 11 flight Round Robin. At the conclusion of the Round Robin, the teams will be ranked and divided into three groups of four. Each group of four will then race semi finals and a final to determine eventual standings within that group (1st to 4th, 5th to 8th, 9th to 12th), and ultimately for the Act 12 championship title.

Day 1 sees Team Shosholoza against Spain in Flight 1 and BMW Oracle in Flight 2, on Day 2 they will race United Internet Team Germany and Alinghi, Areva Challenge and Italian +39 on Day 3, China Team and Sweden's Victory Challenge on Day 4, Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa on Day 5, and finally Mascalzone Latino - Capitalia Team on Day 6.