Twelve teams tackled light conditions today on the opening race day of the 2025 Macao Match Cup as the first eight flights of the qualifying round-robin stage were completed. Defending Match Racing World Champion Ian Williams (GBR), USA’s Gavin Brady and France’s Tom Foucher finished the day undefeated in their opening races.
A light 4-8 knot breeze graced the opening day of the inaugural Macao Match Cup presenting challenging conditions for the two groups of six teams in the first round-robin stage matches of the event.
In the opening flight, France’s Tom Foucher, 23, and his APCC Sailing Team took an early win against USA’s Chris Poole/ Riptide Racing, before going on to defeat fellow French skipper Maxime Mesnil/ Match in Black and Sweden’s Oscar Engström/ Team Liros to post three wins from three races.
As the breeze picked up gradually by late morning, GBR’s Ian Williams and team found themselves in a contact with Australia’s Zac West, forcing two penalties on West in the match and awarding the win to Williams.
Williams went on to defeat 2022 Match Racing World Champion Nick Egnot-Johnson/ Knots Racing, Italy’s Rocco Attili/RBYS, Australia’s Max Paul/Bombora Racing, and Pauline Courtois/ Match in Pink to give the Pindar by Manuport Logistics team an impressive 5-0 score for the day.
“We had some close races today, but we were able to get ourselves in the right positions and get ahead in all our races which was a great start. The conditions are a little shifty, but the forecast is looking to build over the next few days which should make things interesting” commented Williams.
As the only female skipper and all-female team competing in the event this week, France’s Pauline Courtois and the Match in Pink Normandy Elite team of Maelenn Lemaitre, Sophie Faguet, Laurane Mettraux, Louise Acker posted a solid three wins from their five matches of the day.
In the last flight of the day, Courtois and team, defending Women’s Match World Champions, met their match against fellow Open Match Racing World Champion Ian Williams. After a close start forcing Williams to tack away from their starboard advantage, the teams duelled up the first upwind leg, only for Williams to round the mark first and maintain a lead to the end of the race.
“We are quite happy with our day” added Courtois. “We won 3 races and lost 2, so a good start for us to the event. We have a new goal this year to compete on the Open World Match Racing Tour against other teams and so we want to do our best to improve, and this week at the Macao Match Cup is a great opportunity for us to do that.”
