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Victory Lane claim first tour win

Gram-Hensen's victory places his crew top of the Swedish Match rankings

SKOVSHOVED, Denmark -- Team Victory Lane defeated Sweden's Mattias Rahm 2-1, in a thrilling final at the Danish Open 2002 to claim their first Swedish Match Tour victory.

"The whole team is so happy to have finally broken through and to have done it in front of all our friends and family is icing on the cake," said an elated, exhausted Jes Gram-Hansen said on Sunday.

"A lot of hard work paid off today."

In front of the more than 3,000 spectators who lined the Skovshoved Harbour seawall Gram-Hansen and Rahm put on a match racing exhibition during a penalty-free final.

"Mattias sailed great today. He was very aggressive in the starts which surprised me a bit," admitted Gram-Hansen. "He and his crew really put pressure on us."

Their appearance in the Danish Open 2002 final was their second on the Swedish Match Tour. In March, Gram-Hansen qualified for the finals of the Steinlager/Line 7 Cup in Auckland only to have the finals cancelled due to lack of wind and have the championship awarded to their opponent, Oracle BMW Racing's Peter Holmberg, on points.

As a bonus to their share of the $20,000 prize money, their win moves Gram-Hansen and his Victory Lane crew of Michael Arnlund, Rasmus Kostner, Christian Camp and Jens Dolmer to the top of the Swedish Match Tour 2002-2003 Rankings with 43 points.

"It's been three years on the Swedish Match Tour for us and to finally break through and move to the top of the rankings is very special," said Gram-Hansen.

"We really started at the bottom with many disappointing results, but now we're sailing and winning as a team."

Gram-Hansen is benefiting from the absence of the top-seeded America's Cup match racing skippers who are now committed to their Cup campaigns in New Zealand with the first racing due to start on October 1.

The next event on the Swedish Match Tour is the ADT Gold Cup, hosted by the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, beginning October 14, 2002.

Danish Open 2002