Optimist World Championships in Gran Canaria - Team Racing
by Optimist Worlds News 29 Jul 2003 22:52 BST
The format used is direct elimination with repechage, familiar in several other sports. While the table may look complicated it is based on the simple principle that any team which loses two matches is eliminated.
Rounds one and two went mostly according to seeding, with the exceptions that three times winners Peru defeated Bermuda while Ffrance, which has never shown any enthusiasm for this branch of the sport, went down to New Zealand and Brazil.
Following rounds led to semi-finals in which Peru defeated Japan and Argentina beat Great Britain. Teams relegated to the repechage (the left hand side of the table) battled it out to leave a petit finale between Croatia and Japan which was won by the former.
The final was, as it has been for four of the previous six years, between the two South American specialists and was won for the fourth year in succession by Argentina.
More information on the event website.