Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Minoprio holds on to #1 in world match racing rankings; Ben Ainslie skyrockets to 8th

[Source: ISAF] Newly crowned ISAF Match Racing World Champion Adam Minoprio of New Zealand maintains his hold on the top spot in the latest release of the Open ISAF World Match Race Rankings, as France's Claire Leroy extends her four and half year unbroken run at #1 in the Women's Rankings.

Adam Minoprio (NZL) holds on to world #1 spot for the four consecutive release of the Open Rankings, no surprise after the young Kiwi skipper swept to victory at the Monsoon Cup in Malaysia, in the process securing the title of 2009 ISAF Match Racing World Champion. With three World Tour wins this year (the others came in Marseille and St Moritz), the World Championship title and the world #1 ranking, the 24 year old skipper of ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing ends 2009 at the very summit of the match racing world.

BlackMatch Racing are now the brand new world match racing champions. Kuala Terengganu, 5 December 2009. Video copyright The Visual Collective / BlackMatch

Behind Minorprio, World Championship silver medallist Torvar Mirsky (AUS) stays in the world #2 spot, whilst 2009 ISAF Nations Cup winner Damien Iehl (FRA) climbs up two places to a career-best ranking at #3. Completing the world top five is another French skipper, former world #1 Mathieu Richard, and 2007 and 2008 World Champion, Ian Williams of Great Britain.

The big mover at the top in this Ranking release is British triple Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie (GBR). After finishing as runner up in both the Monsoon Cup and Sunseeker Australia Cup (losing the finals to Minoprio and Mirsky respectively), the TeamOrigin skipper climbs 11 places in this Ranking release to enter the world top 10 for the first time at a career-best Match Race Ranking of #8. Just ahead of Ainslie is Bjorn Hansen of Sweden, who stays at #7 after scoring an impressive win at the ISAF Grade 1 Berlin Match Race.

Also on winning form is young Australian Keith Swinton, whose outstanding season continued with victory in Italy at the ISAF Grade 2 Trapani Match Cup. As a result, Swinton climbs five places to break into the world top 20 at #16 in this Ranking release.

At the ISAF Grade 2 Mumbai International Match Race, Mahesh Ramchandran (IND) showed why he’s his country’s top ranked skipper by scoring overall victory ahead of Farokh Tarapore (IND). The win helps Ramchandran climb from #45 to #33 in this Ranking release, putting him just behind Brazilian skipper Henrique Haddad.

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