Quarter-finalists have been decided on the third day of the 2024 World Match Racing Tour Shenzhen Bao’an Final. After a highly competitive round-robin stage, France’s Ian Garreta emerged as the top seed, tying with Sweden’s Johnie Berntsson and Switzerland’s Eric Monnin at eight wins each. Garreta secured the lead on a countback, after defeating Berntsson and Monnin in their respective matches.

The Shenzhen event marks 23 year old Ian Garreta’s first appearance in a World Match Racing Tour Final. Reflecting on his performance, Garreta commented, “We were happy with the round robin yesterday, so going into today, we felt the pressure to finish in the top four and qualify for quarters. Now that we are here, the pressure is off, and everything from here is a bonus.”

Racing conditions in Shenzhen continued to challenge teams with shifty northerly breezes that arrived in the morning and allowed racing to start on time. The variable conditions ensured that no lead was safe, as trailing boats frequently found opportunities to come back. Maneuvering and tactical calls on the shifts proved critical for success.

Johnie Berntsson also expressed satisfaction with his team’s performance. “I am happy about how the team is working together to improve all the time, even though it’s very hard to understand the conditions here. But we are fast, and that is certainly helping.”

“Our goal for this season was to succeed in the quarter-finals, last season we failed at every single quarter-finals,” commented Eric Monnin. “This year, we have advanced in the quarter-finals, so now we are at the same stage. We know it’s difficult sailing, and we know there is a lot of stake in this quarter-finals. First, we have to see who qualifies from the repechage.”

Once the round-robin was concluded, the afternoon’s schedule included the beginning of the repechage round, where the bottom eight teams compete in a second round-robin format to determine the four remaining spots in the quarter-finals.

The World Match Racing Tour Shenzhen Bao’an Final continues tomorrow with repechage racing scheduled to begin at 1000 local time.