YOUNG GUNS WIN IN CHICAGO

YOUNG GUNS WIN IN CHICAGO
7/26/2009

20-year old Taylor Canfield and 21-year old Dustin Durant win Final and Petit-Final rounds at Chicago Match Race Center’s July Grade 3 event

Chicago, USA – 21-year old Taylor Canfield from the US Virgin Islands has today won the Chicago Match Race Center’s (CMRC’s) July Grade 3 Event, defeating runner-up Jon Singsen (USA) in an exciting 3-0 Final sailed in front of the Chicago lakefront’s Belmont Harbor. Canfield sailed with Cy Thompson also of the USVI, Matt Clark and Todd Reynolds, who are both from Chicago. And in Petit Final action, another young skipper, Dustin Durant (USA) from Long Beach, won third place in a 2-1 round against local-based Steve Lowery (USA).

This was the third and final day of racing in equally-matched TOM 28’s among 12 teams entered in this event, the second of four scheduled for this year’s CMRC 2009 season.

Today’s 10-15 knot westerly conditions were shifty, but otherwise perfect for match race sailing, with nearly every match providing high drama for spectators arrayed on shore at the lakefront park at Belmont Harbor or on CMRC’s floating regatta center moored just metres from the pre-start area. Matches in the Canfield-Singsen Final were especially close and aggressive, with multiple penalty flags and no contest won by more than a few seconds.

"My heart never beat so fast as racing against Singsen," said an elated Canfield. “All our matches with him were really close. My team really helped pull us through some tough situations, so all credit goes to them and their performance.”

Singsen and his team were clearly on a roll and hungry to win, having been last after Friday’s first day of competition, but yesterday qualified for today’s Final Four and then went on to win their Semi-Final round to go to the Finals.

"Hats off to Taylor and Dustin, I hope they continue to hone their talents,” said Singsen. “The young guys on the World Tour also worked hard at their age, and they are on the Tour only a few years older than these two." Singsen referred to Adam Minoprio (NZL) and Torvar Mirsky (AUS), currently ranked 2^nd and 4^th respectively on the World Match Racing Tour standings.

“We’re really pleased the weather held and thankful of the phenomenal work put in by our race management team led by Bill Canfield and umpires led by Tom Rinda,” said CMRC Director Bill Hardesty. “To get in so many races and rotations among the 12 teams we had here is a testament to how well this team performed, and its helping validate our vision for providing regular high-quality Open match race competition here in the US.”

For more information, photos, and complete results, visit the CMRC website atwww.chicagomatchrace.com. Live updates are also provided by Twitter from the site.

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