Dean Barker of Team New Zealand swept his way into the finals of the Swedish Match Tour's Trombini Match Race where he will face defending champion Magnus Holmberg of Team Stora Enso and the Swedish Victory Challenge on Sunday.

After dispatching of Nicola Celon of Italy in quarterfinal action, Barker faced the regatta's hottest team of Peter Holmberg and Oracle Racing. Showing none of the negative effects of his poor showing at last week's Swedish Match Cup, Barker sailed masterfully and took advantage of all the opportunities that came his way.

"All the races with Peter were quite close," stated Barker. "The leads changed quite a few times. We were fortunate to come out on top in most cases. He is excellent in the starts so he puts the pressure on you from the beginning of every match."

Magnus Holmberg started the day facing a two race deficit in the first-to-three-wins quarterfinals against Russell Coutts of the Alinghi Challenge, winner of last week's Swedish Match Cup. The Swedish skipper and his Scandinavian crew were undeterred at the challenge facing them as they rallied past the Kiwi sailing legend, taking three straight matches, to put themselves in the semifinals against James Spithill and his OneWorld crew.

The match of the day was fourth race in the Holmberg-Spithill semifinal. With his back against the wall, after having given up back-to-back races, Spithill rallied back from a disastrous start which had him facing the race committee boat as Holmberg sailed across the start line. Spithill was able to gradually make up the huge deficit over the three legs of the race and just nipped Holmberg by less than two meters at the finish. Unfortunately, the young OneWorlder's efforts were for naught as the Swedes bloodthirstily won the start in match five and sailed on to meet Barker in Sunday's finals.

After such a long and emotional day on the water Holmberg and crew are looking forward to recharging their batteries and defending their title on Sunday.

"As I've said, it's never easy to win a Swedish Match Tour event," said Holmberg. "The quality of the teams is very high and we saw today that anything can happen. We're looking forward to tomorrow and hopefully we'll sail well and put ourselves in a position to win."

Semifinal Results

Semifinal 1

Spithill def. M. Holmberg
M. Holmberg def. Spithill
M. Holmberg def. Spithill
Spithill def. M. Holmberg
M. Holmberg def. Spithill

Semifinal 2

Barker def. P. Holmberg
Barker def. P. Holmberg
Barker def. P. Holmberg

Peter Holmberg of the Oracle Racing team continued his winning ways at the Swedish Match Tour's Roberto Trombini Match Race in Ravenna, Italy. Holmberg closed out the round robin portion of the event in first place on Friday and then won his first two quarterfinal match-ups against Morten Henriksen of the illbruck Challenge in the first-to-three-wins format.

Joining Oracle Racing's Holmberg at two wins in the quarterfinal round are Russell Coutts of the Alinghi Challenge and James Spithill of the OneWorld Challenge. Coutts, fresh off his dominating win at last week's Swedish Match Cup in Marstrand, Sweden, holds the advantage over Swedish Match Tour Year 2 Champion Magnus Holmberg of Team StoraEnso and the Swedish Victory Challenge. Holmberg, the defending event champion faces an uphill climb on Saturday against a competitor who seems to be on top of his game.

Spithill and his young crew of OneWorlders gained a big edge in their quarterfinal match against local favorite Paolo Cian, the helmsman for Mascalzone Latino, the all-Italian challenger for the 2003 America's Cup. The young skipper and his crew sailed well in shifty winds and outmaneuvered Cian, winning both starts.

Tied at one win in quarterfinal action are Dean Barker of Team New Zealand and Nicola Celon, a Sydney Olympian in soling who has now dedicated his efforts to the sport of match racing. Celon, who finished tied for third in round robin action, won the first quarterfinal match before Barker battled back to knot it up.

In the conclusion of round robin competition Peter Holmberg notched three wins, bringing his total to ten, to lead the round robin portion of the regatta. Holmberg dropped his final race to Henriksen for the only blemish on his record. A highlight of the day's round robin action was the match between the heads of the two Italian challenges for the 2003 America's Cup, Francesco de Angelis of the Prada Challenge and Paolo Cian of the Mascalzone Latino Challenge. De Angelis led for most of the race but Cian, with a penalty to execute, made a move on the final windward leg to pull ahead. As Cian conducted his penalty at the line, with the wind to his left, he incurred another penalty as de Angelis attempted to sail past him, wasting a valiant effort but providing a valuable lesson-learned to the relative newcomer to the international match racing scene.

The final race of the round robin series between Barker and Magnus Holmberg was also one of the day's closest. Barker won the match in a down-to-the-wire, near-photo finish. Barker trailed Holmberg by more than three boat lengths but closed over the second half of the race and just nipped the defending champion at the line.

The day featured more of the same heat and humidity which has marked the first half of the regatta. Eight to ten knot winds between the piers provided excellent sailing conditions.

Quarterfinals :

Flight 1 : P. Holmberg def. Henriksen - Spithill def. Cian - Celon def. Barker - Coutts def. M. Holmberg

Flight 2 : P. Holmberg def. Henriksen - Spithill def. Cian - Barker def. Celon - Coutts def. M. Holmberg

Final Round Robin Leaderboard (Skipper/Wins/Losses)

Peter Holmberg 10 1
Russell Coutts 8 3
Paolo Cian 7 4
Nicola Celon 7 4
Dean Barker 6 5
James Spithill 6 5
Magnus Holmberg 6 5
Morten Henriksen 5 6

Andy Green 4 7
Francesco de Angelis 4 7
Luc Pillot 3 8
Federico Strocchi 0 11

RESULTS

Flight 10 : P. Holmberg def. Barker - Spithill def. M. Holmberg - Henriksen def. Strocchi - Green def. Cian

Flight 11 : Spithill def. Henriksen - Cian def. Strocchi - P. Holmberg def. Celon - Coutts def. De Angelis

Flight 12 : M. Holmberg def. Green - Coutts def. Strocchi - Celon def. Spithill - Barker def. Pillot

Flight 13 : Celon def. Henriksen - M. Holmberg def. Pillot - Green def. Barker - De Angelis def. Cian - P. Holmberg def. Spithill

Flight 14 : Pillot def Green - Henriksen def. P. Holmberg - Coutts def. Cian - De Angelis def. Strocchi - Barker def. Holmberg

Peter Holmberg of the Oracle Racing Team stands alone atop the leaderboard with seven wins after posting a perfect record on the first day of round robin action at the Swedish Match Tour's Roberto Trombini Match Race in Ravenna, Italy.

The day began on an ominous note for Holmberg as he caught a penalty in the pre-start of his opening match with Russell Coutts of the Alinghi Challenge. "It certainly is a tough way to start a regatta," said Holmberg. "Luckily we were able to win the start, execute our penalty and sail away for what began a comfortable win."

Holmberg quickly credited his crew for putting him in his position atop the standings. "Winning match races is a team effort. The crew worked very well together and I have a very high comfort-level with all the crew and especially John Cutler, going back to our days in Finns and previous America's Cup campaigns."

One win off the pace is Paola Cian of the Mascalzone Latino America's Cup Challenge. The Italian skipper lost his only match of the day to Holmberg and most certainly has paved his way into the next round as he will face three of the four lowest ranked skippers when round robin action concludes tomorrow.

The day's conditions featured light air in the morning and shifty conditions in the afternoon making for some exciting match racing in the highly maneuverable Tom-28s.

Leaderboard (Skipper/Wins/Losses)

Peter Holmberg 7 0
Paolo Cian 6 1
Nicola Celon 5 3
Russell Coutts 5 3
Dean Barker 4 3
Magnus Holmberg 4 3
James Spithill 4 3
Morten Henriksen 3 4
Francesco de Angelis 2 6
Andy Green 2 5
Luc Pillot 2 6
Federico Strocchi 0 7

RESULTS

Flight 1 : M. Holmberg def. De Angelis - Pillot def. Celon - Spithill def. Green - Cian def. Henriksen - P. Holmberg def. Coutts

Flight 2 : P. Holmberg def. Cian - Coutts def. Henriksen - Celon def. Green - Barker def. De Angelis - M. Holmberg def. Strocchi

Flight 3 : Green def. Henriksen - Barker def. Coutts - Celon def. Strocchi - P. Holmberg def. Pillot - Spithill def. De Angelis

Flight 4 : Celon def. De Angelis - Spithill def. Strocchi - Henriksen def. Pillot - Cian def. Barker - Coutts def. M. Holmberg

Flight 5 : Henriksen def. Barker - Cian def. Spithill - Pillot def. Strocchi - P. Holmberg def. M. Holmberg - De Angelis def. Green

Flight 6 : Spithill def. Pillot - Cian def. M. Holmberg - P. Holmberg def. Green - Barker def. Strocchi - Coutts def. Celon

Flight 7 : Green def. Strocchi - Cian def. Celon - Coutts def. Spithill - De Angelis def. Pillot - M. Holmberg def. Henriksen

Flight 8 : Coutts def. Green - Henriksen def. De Angelis - Cian def. Pillot - P. Holmberg def. Strocchi - Celon def. Barker

Flight 9 : P. Holmberg def. De Angelis - Coutts def. Pillot - Barker def. Spithill - M. Holmberg def. Celon

Swedish Match Tour Year 2 Champion Magnus Holmberg and his Team StoraEnso match race crew will be defending their Trofeo Challenge Roberto Trombini Match Race title this week in Marina di Ravenna, Italy. Their victory here last year set the pace for what was an incredibly successful Swedish Match Tour campaign for these veterans of the international match racing scene.

Holmberg is under no illusions that defending his title will be an easy feat. "It is a very good line up and it is always difficult to win a Swedish Match Tour event, but I hope we can make it into the top three and begin building our points for Swedish Match Tour Year 3.

" Having received the Swedish Match Tour Year 2 Trophy presented by Wedgwood, as well as the first place prize check of US$60,000 on Sunday, July 8, Holmberg and his crew have had less than 48 hours to revel in their success. Their collective attention is now focused on facing a field of America's Cup skippers here in Ravenna.

While it would have been easily understood if the Swede had decided to take a week off, several factors motivated Holmberg to pack his bags and get right back into the fray. "I love the boats (Tom 28s). They are great match racing boats and behave like they are much larger."

Additionally, with the start list heavy with representatives from America's Cup syndicates, Holmberg realizes that this week will provide some key tests for he and his crew. "It is important to check your tactical skills and see how you compare as a team to the other syndicates as well as make sure you are up to date with the latest developments on the match race scene. You never want to miss an opportunity to measure yourself against these guys assembled here."

Oracle Racing's Peter Holmberg, Francesco de Angelis of the Prada Challenge, Nicola Celon of Italy, Russell Coutts of the Alinghi Challenge, Andy Green of the GBR Challenge, Dean Barker of Team New Zealand, James Spithill of the OneWorld Challenge, Morten Henriksen of the illbruck Challenge, Paolo Cian of the Mascalzone Latino Challenge, Luc Pillot of France and Federico Strocchi of Italy round out the list of competitors. .