With Francesco Bruni and the Italian Azzurra team having just taken the inaugural 2009 Louis Vuitton Trophy event in Nice, there was a lot of interest in his performance against the top sailors from the World Match Racing Tour. However, it seemed that Bruni may have wished he had stayed in bed after his first four matches.

In the first against local favourite and World Match Racing Tour number two Torvar Mirsky, Bruni did not enter the box correctly, attracted a penalty and then was over the line at the start. Against World Match Racing Tour defending champion Ian Williams (GBR), there was another timing issue with Bruni over the start line early. He had to duck back and could not overcome the disadvantage.

Then against the current Tour leader Adam Minoprio (NZL), Bruni was over again. Minoprio did a slow tack on the committee boat to keep a vice like tight cover on Bruni and did not let it slip for the duration of the race.

Minoprio, Mirsky and Williams remained unbeaten after their first three matches, but racing in the afternoon saw Bruni defeated again by Australia’s Seve Jarvin.

At the end of the day, defending Champion Ian Williams was round robin leader, after winning a solid set of four matches. Also with ‘clean sheets’ were current World Match Racing Tour leader Adam Minoprio (New Zealand) and number two Torvar Mirsky (Australia), both with three wins from three starts.

Dockside, it was a tired smile from Francesco Bruni: “Not the best day we’ve ever had, 0-4… we are tired from travelling and we don’t know the boats well. But it is a good venue and a very high level of sailing. We will get stronger.”

Australia Cup Results, Day One:
Wins Matches

Ian Williams (Great Britain) 4 4

Torvar Mirsky (Australia) 3 3
Adam Minoprio (New Zealand) 3 3

Seve Jarvin (Australia) 1 4
Mathieu Richard (France) 1 1

Keith Swinton (Australia) 1 1

Ben Ainslie (Great Britain) 1 1
Francesco Bruni (Italy) 0 4
Evan Walker (Australian) 0 5

For more, visit www.australiacup.org.au