| KEY BISCAYNE, FL. USA-(7-3-2003) After five races and with one more race to go, the reigning Star Class World Champions Iain Percy and crew Steve Mitchell (GBR) have regained the lead in the 2003 Bacardi Cup Regatta on Biscayne Bay.
Percy and Mitchell, currently ranked at number 1 in the ISAF World Rankings, need to finish 11th place or better in the last race, regardless of how the rest of the fleet performs, to win the title. They would be the first European team to win the Bacardi Cup in its 76-year history.
The team won its second first place finish in race five with more than a minute lead over Fredrik Loof and crew Andres Ekstrom of Sweden and top the table 11 points clear of Diaz and Strube (USA) in second.
`We had a small edge over Loof going into the final run, but we were really in tune today flowing on that last run and working hard,` said Percy. This is the second day in a row that Loof, a former Star Class world champion, and Ekstrom finished in second place.
Augie Diaz and Mark Strube from Miami, USA, ranked at number 24 in the world, move into second place overall and the Bermuda team of Peter Bromby and crew Martin Siese drops to third.
Bromby and Siese who won the 2001 Bacardi Cup came in third, with Diaz and Strube placing fourth. `It was a pretty fast day and we're very happy with our finish,` said Diaz. `We had a decent start and stayed on track but had to protect both sides with Bromby on one and Lovell on the other,` he explained.
Australians Colin Beashel and David Giles crossed the finish in eighth place and said `the stronger winds treated us well today.` John Kostecki and Austin Sperry (USA) who finished seventh also said the strong breeze was a big help to them as well. The winds were 15 knots at the start picking up to18 knots by the third run.
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