Alpari World Match Racing Tour: Ian Williams triumphs in quarter finals in Poland as Canfield cruises to semis

Williams saw off the challenge from local hero Karol Jablonski

A shot of the start of a race at Cowes Week (Getty)

Four-times world match racing champion Ian Williams and his GAC Pindar team won its quarter-final clash with local hero Karol Jablonski in the latest Alpari World Match Racing Tour regatta in Sopot, Poland.

After a shaky start, Williams progressed strongly to take second place in a round robin dominated by the defending world champion, Taylor Canfield of the U.S. Virgin Islands, who dropped only one match on his way to automatic progression to the semi-final.

Mathieu Richard of France met Keith Swinton of Australia while New Zealander Phil Robertson beat Denmark’s Nicolai Sehested in the other, best of three quarter final matches.

As the clock runs down on the entry deadline for the 2017, 35 America’s Cup, Ben Ainslie Racing, still expected to lodge a British challenge by 8 August, has added Paul Campbell-James to the sailing squad. A former helmsman for Italy’s Prada-backed Luna Rossa challenger, Campbell-James is expected to join the BAR crew as a replacement for Olympic gold medallist Paul Goodison for the Cardiff regatta in the Extreme Sailing Series.

In Cowes, an entry list topping 800 boats was preparing for the first day of Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week with a promise that soft conditions in the morning would improve throughout a day of winds influenced by a southerly direction.