Saint-Petersburg Yacht Club Gazprom Team Russia has finished a busy week of competitions of the second division of WMRT series - Miami Match Cup and Coconut Groove Cup, which were held consecutively on April 11-16. As a result of the competition, the Russian team achieved five wins in the qualifying rounds.
Six days of competition in Florida were said to be «in the same breath». In the fresh wind off the coast of Miami, ten teams from six countries played over fifty duels.
World Match Racing Tour competitions are held on different continents and include qualifying stages and competitions of the main grid. As the name implies, the World Match Racing Tour races are match racing events using modern M32 class catamarans. Gazprom Team Russia debuted in this class on 16-18 March in Petra, Australia .
In the middle of April Florida will host two qualifying stages of the series. From 11th to 13th of April Miami Match Cup took place and according to its results two top teams got admission to the main draw stage which will take place in July in Marstrand, Sweden: the winning crew of Australian Harry Price and the second place crew of American Nevin Snow. The next event, the Coconut GrooveCup, took place April 14-16, and decided the two competitors for the Chicago leg at the end of the year.
In both events the Russian team proved that they did not come to the USA as extras.
In fresh wind around 20 knots, the team of Viktor Serezhkin confidently imposed struggle to all rivals. The guys managed to resist the pressure of more experienced opponents and achieved a number of victories in the qualifying rounds of each competition.
«We keep up with almost each of our rivals, but as correctly noted by the commentators of the races here - the experience of sailing these catamarans is very important, - said the skipper of the Russian team, Viktor Serezhkin, - that is exactly the experience we came here for!»
Gazprom Team Russia was represented entirely by Russian crew. Apart from Viktor Serezhkin, the crew of the team included Yegor Terpigorev, Pavel Karachov and Alexey Kulakov.
Victor Serezhkin's crew went to the start of the Coconut Groove Cup without any break, on April 14th, where due to the lack of time (one day of racing was cancelled - high wind) there was one qualifying round. Here, the Russian team won one victory.
«Performance in Miami turned out to be a difficult test for our team, first of all it was a real endurance test», - said Viktor Serezhkin, - «we saw how many mistakes we make at different stages of the race, and we will work on the mistakes».
The next competition on the Gazprom Team Russia calendar will be the M32 World Championship, which will take place in Marstrand, Sweden, on July 12-16. In addition, the team will participate in the main stage of the World Match Racing Tour in St. Petersburg (August 1-6) and in the USA in early September.
