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Skippers bid for match race prize

Holmberg has already clinched the 2001/2 tour

MARSTRAND, Sweden -- Several top America's Cup skippers will make a late bid for a share of the Swedish Match Tour's $200,000 prize purse when racing begins on July 1.

The final event of the 2001/2 match racing season, the Swedish Match Cup, takes place in Marstrand, Sweden from July 1-7.

The winner in 2000, Team New Zealand's Dean Barker, who finished second at the Trofeo Challenge Trombini Cup in Italy two weeks ago, will compete against team mate and 1996 winner Bertrand Pace, who was also runner-up in 2000.

Barker will also be facing his ex-Team New Zealand skipper Russell Coutts who now heads the Swiss Alinghi Challenge and is the defending Swedish Match Cup champion.

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Two other America's Cup skippers competing in Sweden are the current Swedish Match Tour 2001/2 champion Peter Holmberg of Oracle Racing and the Swedish Match Tour champion of 2000/1, Magnus Holmberg of Sweden's Victory Challenge.

Peter Holmberg has already wrapped up the 2001/2 championship with an unassailable lead of 40 points and secured the $60,000 first prize, but there is still $140,000 up for grabs at Marstrand.

Only five points separate Magnus Holmberg in second place, from third place skipper Jes Gram-Hansen of Denmark. Both skippers will be at the Swedish Match Cup with $40,000 being the reward for a second place finish and $25,000 for third.

Other skippers include American Ed Baird, Denmark's Jes Gram-Hansen and Jesper Radich, Alinghi Challenge's Jochen Schumann, Sweden's Bjorn Hansen, Mattias Rahm and Mikael Lindkvist, Finland's Staffan Lindberg and Poland's Karol Jablonski.

The Swedish Match Tour, the world's premier professional match racing sailing series, has announced its schedule of events for 2002/3.

Starting with the addition of the UBS Challenge in Newport, Rhode Island, U.S., July 27 to August 4 with a prize purse of $100,000, the 2002/3 Swedish Match Tour series will now cover nine events.

Swedish Match Tour leaderboard 2001/2