Adam Minoprio is the new world match racing champion

What a difference a day makes!! A mere 24 hours ago Adam Minoprio and the BlackMatch Racing crew were on the edge of being eliminated and today swept in the quarterfinals, beating Mathieu Richard 3-0 and pocketing a spot in the semis but, more importantly, becoming the new world chamapions, after their archival Torvar Mirsky fell to Peter Gilmour.

Adam Minoprio advances now to the Monsoon Cup semifinals, together with Ben Ainslie, Peter Gilmour and Sébastien Col.

Here are the first reactions from Adam Minoprio, helmsman of BlackMatch Racing: "It has been an amazing 24 hours for us. Yesterday morning we had a lot on to qualify for the quarterfinals but we managed to do what we had to do and won the last race to qualify. We then went on, won Richard 3-0 in the quarterfinals and put the pressure on Torvar Mirsky who had to absolutely make it to the semis to still have a shot at the world championship. We are pleased that Torvar lost the races and it is unbelievable how happy we are now that won the world match racing championship.

We surely had the weight taken off our shoulders from the qualifiers and we had to focus on what we do best, beat just one person. We concentrated on that and things worked out very well. We are also pleased to have eliminated Mathieu Richard because last year here, he just took us off the podium; we were on equal points be he won on the countback. He's a great match racer and has been around a lot of time so it always feels well to take him down.

It was an extremely tricky day today. The current was on both sides and there was no clear favored side; it changed back and forth, the current moves in and out as the tide flows. Depending no how you get the swirl you might advance from half to five boat lengths. "

BlackMatch Racing round the last top mark ahead of Mathieu Richard. Not only do they earn their slot in the semifinals, they also become the new world champions. Kuala Terengganu, 5 December 2009. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

BlackMatch Racing sail into victory in their last quarterfinal race. Kuala Terengganu, 5 December 2009. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing

BlackMatch Racing round the last top mark ahead of Mathieu Richard. Kuala Terengganu, 5 December 2009. Photo copyright Pierre Orphanidis / Valencia Sailing