2010 Malaysian Match Racing Championship
Day 2 Morning Notes & Round Robin 1 Wrap-Up

Day 2 Morning Notes
From PRO David Tallis

PULAU DUYONG (OCT 21st): 4knots WSW - 1.5 knots current at 270

Flight 7
Rizali vs Jeremy Koo. Watched with keen interest.
Jeremy controlled prestart and had a commanding lead around the first lap. Rizali worked the puffs well to close up on the second work. With slightly better pressure in the left, Rizali crossed at the top mark and held the lead for a 22 sec win. Making it a clean sweep of the Koo's.

Match racing newcomer Jerome played the shifts beautifully on the first beat to lead Masyuri but a poor rounding of the leeward mark let Masyuri slip inside to take the win. Jerome has held the lead in many of his matches and promises to be a force to be reckoned with, once he can master the finer points of match racing.

Elia showed incredible speed in the light conditions to lead around the race track only to watch Nik sail around her on the final downwind when the wind shutdown.

Match 4 was a classic match race between the reigning Champion Hazwan and 2 time winner Tiffany Koo. Hazwan held Tiffany out to the left of the course until they were well upwind of the first mark. A light air gybing duel on the first run had the boats line astern at the bottom mark. Hazwan's superior light air speed allowed him to extend the lead on the next work only to see Tiffany close to within 2 boat lengths at the finish.

Flight 8
Rizali vs Jerome
Rizali took a commanding lead over Jerome and was never headed from the start, clearly signaling his intentions to take the title away this year.

Tiffany Koo vs Elia - Without a doubt the flight of the round.
Featured everything with tack after tack thrown at Tiffany upwind, a luffing duel at the top mark saw the boats parked up for 2 minutes until Tiffany just managed to sneak around with a 1 boat length lead. Elia was not going to be bettered and a spirited gybing duel had her rounding the leeward mark still 1 metre astern of Tiffany. In a repeat of the first lap Elia threw tack after tack at Tiffany. After a dozen gybes downwind the boats split and ran to either end of the finish line. Koo taking the win by the barest of margins. PRO DT confirmed the delta was 1.5m at the finish.

Match 4: Jeremy Koo and defending champion Hazwan put on a masterful display of boat handling in the prestart with aggressive circling as each tried to get the upper hand. Hazwan earned a penalty for gybing to close but lead off the line. Koo worked the current perfectly to close within a boat length, with the final run to go. Hazwan tried to hook Koo in an attempt to wash off the penalty but the luff came too late allowing Koo to cross half a boat length in front at the finish.

With the seebreeze increasing the competitors were eager to get close and push every incident to the limit. Round Robin 2 starts this afternoon and promises to be a more heated affair than their first encounters.

Short wrap of the first round robin (Below),

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT FOR RAZALI
By Monsoon Cup Media

PULAU DUYONG (OCT 21, 2010): Mohd Razali (MAF1) completed the first round robin stage of the Malaysian Match Racing Championship (MMRC) with six wins from eight matches to lie second behind defending champion Hazwan Hazim Dermawan (Team Pulse-AC Law), who has a 7-1 record.

Razali, however, came close to taking the overall lead, but lost the last match of the First Round Robin stage to Hazwan by 48 seconds. Nonetheless, Razali was delighted with his start. “I have been competing in the MMRC since 2006 and this represents my best ever start,” said Razali, who is completing under the Malaysian Armed Forces banner, as all his crew are Navy personnel based in Lumut Perak. “Part of the reason for my good performances here is because I had one-and-a-half months of solid training coming into the event. "Also, having come here for so many years has given me an added advantage as I know the race course in the Pulau Duyong basin,” added the 41-year-old Master Chief Petty Officer.

The match of the round saw two-time MMRC champion Tiffany Koo (Koo Racing Team) edging last year’s finalist Nurul Elia Anuar (Sail Putrajaya) by a mere five seconds. The match featured everything with tack after tack thrown at Tiffany upwind, a luffing duel at the top mark saw the boats parked up for two minutes until Tiffany just managed to sneak around with a one boat length lead. Elia was not going to be bettered, and a spirited gybing duel had her round the leeward mark on one metre astern. In a repeat of the first lap Elia threw tack after tack at Tiffany. After a dozen gybes downwind the boats split and ran to either end of the finish as Tiffany took the win by the barest of margins.

STANDINGS (at the end of Round Robin 1)
Hazwan Hazim Dermawan (Team Pulse-AC Law) 7-1
Mohd Razali Mansor (MAF 1) 6-2
Nik Ashraf Qaedi (Team One) 6-2
Jeremy Koo (Koo Racing Team-Evernew) 5-3
Tiffany Koo (Koo Racing Team) 5-3
Nurul Elia Anuar (Sail Putrajaya) 4-4
Mohd Masyuri Rahmat (MYA) 2-6
Rizal Mahadi Sazli (RSYC) 1-8
Jerome Welch (Putrajaya 5 O) 0-8points

Goto Day 4 Final Press Release
MMRC Day 3 Summary
MMRC Day 2 Press Release
MMRC Day 1 Press Release
MMRC Oct AY Team News

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