The Tribune

IT came down to a photo finish but, in the end, skipper Iain Percy of Great Britain and crew Anders Ekström of Sweden are the 2019 Star Sailors League Finals champions.

A former Olympic champion, the duo just beat out Xavier Rohart/Pierre-Alexis Ponsot of France and Elvind Melleby (Norway)/Josh Revkin (USA).

“It was tighter than we wanted, but exciting. There must have been three boats within a metre,” Percy said.

“That’s what it’s all about here – it as brilliant. You keep plugging away and sometimes it works out like it did for us today,” added Ekström.

“I am surprised, but Iain is a great sailor, so I was hoping for us to do well, but maybe not this well! We just kept chipping away, which is what you have to do. We are super happy.”

Of the 2019 SSL Finals, SSL President Xavier Rohart commented: “This week has gone really well. Today it is possible for almost all kinds of racers to come and be competitive.

“We have right format now to find who is the best sailor in the world. For sure Iain and Anders proved they are today.”

The lone Bahamian in the field, former 5.5 Metre World Champion Mark Holowesko, did not advance beyond the qualifying rounds and finished 23rd overall.

Holowesko and crew - Christoph Burger of Switzerland finished 23rd in race one and 21st in race two on day one.

They finished 21st in race three, 22nd in race four and 23rd in race five. They had their best outing of the qualifying round on day three with a 16th place finish in race six, followed with their best finish overall, 15th place in race seven and were 21st in race eight.

They concluded their competition with 21st and 20th finishes in races nine and 10.

A total of 23 teams competed over the four days of competition featuring several former Olympic and World Champions.

After four days of qualification rounds for all 23 crews, the competition advanced into the knockout stages.

The last four teams advanced to a final race. Percy and Ekstrom took the lion’s share of the $200,000 prize purse.