Chernikeeff RYA National Match Racing Finals Preview

ADRIAN STEAD JOINS CHERNIKEEFF RYA NATIONAL MATCH RACING FINALS LINE UP

With just two days to go before the 2000 Chernikeeff RYA National Match Racing Championship Finals, the event is winding up to be a classic showdown as five members of the successful Sydney 2000 Olympic team are confirmed to square up against some of Great Britain's most talented up and coming match racers over four days at London's Royal Victoria Dock.

Amongst the latest crew signings for the finals is Adrian 'Ado' Stead, who will join double Olympian and top seed (defending champion) Andy Beadsworth's crew amongst the nine seeded entries.

Both are graduates of the RYA youth and match racing programmes. After competing together at the Savannah Olympic Games in 1996, Beadsworth stayed in the Olympic Soling class, going on to collect numerous world and European championship medals (racking up his fourth national match racing championship win along the way) while Stead has risen through the big boat ranks to become one of the worlds most coveted keelboats skippers and tacticians.

His resume includes one Whitbread round the world race (aboard Silk Cut) and more recently leadership of victorious British crews at the 1999 Champagne Mumm Admirals Cup and this year's Tour de France a la Voile with Barlo Plastics.

"The match racing series is an interesting event as you get Olympians, keelboat and dinghy sailors and novices all thrown in together. When you combine the sailors with a landlocked 'streetfighter' venue and the First Class 8 One Designs which really show up any flaws in team work or match racing skills, it makes for an interesting event," commented Ado.

The balance of Beadsworth and Stead's crew will be Ian Tillett, who crewed for Beadsworth when he won the national finals three years in a row in the early nineties with Nik Pearson on the bow, one of Beadsworth's regular match racing crewmembers.

In a similar fashion to the Colourcraft Gold Cup in Bermuda, the final event in the Swedish Match Grand Prix tour series, the twelve unseeded skippers are divided into groups. Each sails a round robin to select the top three to four crews from each group (depending on final entry numbers on Wednesday) who then progress to sail against the nine seeded skippers in a Wimbledon-style knock-out series.

Of the eight other seeded skippers who will join the fray on Friday, the most formidable are likely to be past champion and Olympic triallist Ian Williams and reigning youth world match racing champion Mark Campbell-James although Ian Budgen, Joe Llewellyn, Simon Shaw, Andrew Cornah, Leo Dixon and Hywel Roberts have all proved they can pull something special out of the hat when it counts.

Leading the non seeded group of twelve finalist hopefuls who commence battle on Wednesday morning will be Olympic Gold Medallist Shirley Robertson, former number one in the ISAF women's world match racing standings and Beadsworth's Sydney middleman, Richard Sydenham, runner up helmsman in 1997 and double youth match racing world champion.

For Robertson, it will be her first time back on the racetrack since winning the Olympic title in Sydney nearly four weeks ago. "I'm looking forward to going sailing again, especially with other people. Our biggest aim is to get back into the swing of things, mostly as I haven't sailed with anyone else for quite a while and then see what we have to do to get in tune for the women's match racing world championships at the end of the month (in St Petersburg in Florida, USA)," said Shirley.

Sydenham meanwhile will be using this event as a springboard for a 2004 Soling campaign. Joining him in London will be two members of Stuart Childerly's 1996 winning crew and Great Britain's Tornado representatives in Australia, Hugh Styles and Adam May.

Racing commences on Wednesday morning.

More Information:

• Chernikeeff (Dimension Data) Sailing Page