Sailing-Poole and Monnin seize control ahead of Congressional Cup finals

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LONG BEACH, California (Reuters) -Under leaden skies and the lightest of breeze, the 60th Congressional Cup served up high-stakes drama on Saturday as four skippers secured semi-final berths in contrasting style.

Chris Poole, of the U.S., and Switzerland’s Eric Monnin advanced smoothly to the knockouts, while Long Beach’s Dave Hood and Australia’s Cole Tapper needed must-win races to reach the final four.

Poole and Monnin now lead their respective semi-finals 2-0 over Tapper and Hood going into Sunday’s finale.

In Congressional Cup sailing, the skipper who finishes first in the round-robin stage can choose their semi-final opponent from three options, and Poole selected Tapper’s Sydney crew before taking full advantage of pre-start chaos, with Tapper picking up multiple red-flag penalties.

“We’re back to where we were last year,” said Poole. “Our plan is to keep improving one race at a time. We’ve been here twice before and feel like all the pieces are there.”

In the other semi, Monnin capitalised on light airs to secure a two-race cushion over Hood.

“We weren’t locked into the semi-finals to start the day, so it was a relief to win against Johnie Berntsson and then Chris Poole,” Monnin said. “Now we hope to keep the momentum up.”

Hood remained undeterred: “We needed to come out and get it done and had a good race with Bjorn Hansen to make it through. We’ll come out swinging against Eric tomorrow.”

Sunday’s final will decide the winner of the Crimson Blazer at a regatta that has shaped match racing since 1965. Crews of six or seven compete in identical Catalina 37s, with 10 teams from seven nations taking part this year.

(Reporting by Ossian Shine;Editing by Helen Popper)