Chris Poole, Johnnie Berntsson, Pauline Courtois and Eric Monnin advanced to the Bermuda Gold Cup quarter-finals alongside four direct qualifiers.
A spokesperson said, “The big fish in the Bermuda Gold Cup repechage pond all made it through to the quarter-finals on day three of competition in Hamilton Harbour.
Images courtesy of Ian Roman/WMRT.
“Chris Poole [USA], Johnnie Berntsson [SWE], Pauline Courtois [FRA] and Eric Monnin [SUI] all progressed into the final eight via the repechage round and now join Christian Hamilton [GBR], Aurelien Pierroz [FRA], Oscar Engstrom [SWE] and Jeppe Borch [DEN], who made it through directly from the round-robin stages.
“Poole [USA] left himself under pressure heading into the final two flights, needing victories in both to ensure his place in the knockout matches, but victories over the eliminated Martina Carlsson [SWE] and Allison Blecher [USA] propelled him over the line.”
“We knew we had to win some matches and we won our first two but Pauline got the better of us in race three,” Poole said. “We didn’t have our phones, so we weren’t really keeping tabs on the score, but we just needed to go out, sail well, work on the things we needed to work on and we knew the rest would come together.”
The spokesperson said, “Meanwhile Sweden’s Johnie Berntsson was the only unbeaten sailor on the final day of the repechage, winning all five of his matches to top the standings.
“It was a remarkable turnaround for the five-time champion, who lost his first three races of the regatta, but the extra time in the boat helping him and his crew to fine tune their approach.”
“Having the third day in the regatta helps and our momentum is going up,” Berntsson said. “We’re doing less mistakes and the team have been growing together but the conditions today were a little more stable and the shifts were more predictable, which I think favoured us and we managed to pull off some good starts. It was not so randomised as the other two days, so we are really happy and ready for some quarters.”
The spokesperson said, “Pauline Courtois [FRA], the six-time women match racing world champion, is the only female skipper through to the final eight with her Match in Pink crew after she faced a winner-takes-all match against Sweden’s Anna Östling in the final flight, with both sailors entering with four wins.”
“It was very close, like every time with Anna,” Courtois said. “I think we can still improve our technique level but we were happy with our sailing today.”
