– Winner of the 2007 American Cup and Top 3 Teams Will Come to Korea

The draft list of teams participating in the Korea Match Cup of the World Match Racing Tour has been confirmed. With the winner of the 2007 American Cup and the top 10 teams having announced that they will be participating in the race, to be held at Jeongok Marina in Hwaseong City, of Gyeonggi Province in June of 2008, expectations for the Korea Match Cup are high.

Seil New Zealand International (CEO Kim Dong-young), which is in charge of promoting the Korea Match Cup organized by Gyeonggi Province, announced that 10 teams participating in the race have been confirmed in addition to the Korean Team and the Asian Team. Five of the participating teams are former American Cup medalists, including the 2007 American Cup Winner Ed Bard, and silver medalist Dean Baker, for whom the Korea Match Cup will be a rematch of their 2007 contest.

Many international boat racing stars will be participating in the Korea Match Cup, because it is the first race in the history of the World Match Racing Tour to be held in Korea, a fact which is raising expectations among many international teams. The Korea Match Cup is also attractive in that it offers the largest prize purse in the history of the World Match Racing Tour; at USD 320,000, or approximately KRW 300 million, it eclipses the previous record amount of USD 275,000, which was offered at the Monsoon Cup of Malaysia.

Gyeonggi Province and Seil New Zealand International announced that one of the 2 entry slots allocated to Asian teams would be given to the Korean team and the other to the team that wins a preliminary match of teams from the Asian region. It was provisionally agreed with Japan that the preliminary match in Asia would be held in Hayama, Japan, from May 8 to May 11, 2008, under the sponsorship of the Japan Match Race Federation. Hayama, which is 30 minutes south of Tokyo by car, hosted the World Match Racing Tour Nippon Cup in 2003 and 2004. The preliminary match for the Asian Team will be contested by up to 10 teams, including teams from China, Russia, Korea, and a Japanese team featuring Yashiro Yaji, a yacht star from Japan who has participated in the American Cup 4 times, and Takumi Nakamura, who is another promising Japanese star.

The Japan Match Race Federation announced that Japan, with its experience in hosting the World Match Racing Tour, would fully support the Korea Match Cup and will take this as an opportunity to have regular goodwill matches with Korean teams in the future. Japan?¢¯?¢¯?s active support seems to be driven by its determination to seize the opportunity presented by the Korea Match Cup to create a yacht boom in Japan.

China has expressed great interest in the race, inquiring about the use of the official boats of the Korea Match Cup, which are currently being built in Korea, at an exhibition match to be held before the China Cup. China is also interested in regular goodwill matches between Korea, Japan, and China.

Experts say that the teams in Asia will improve their skills through these competitions, and will build a foundation for competition with European teams if the three nations of Japan, Korea and China can successfully establish regular goodwill matches, led by the success of Korea Match Cup. The preliminary match for the Korea Team will be held from May 23 to May 25, 2008.