Luna Rossa Faces Victory Challenge In Repechage

End Of Quarter Finals - Luna Rossa Will Face Victory Challenge In The Repechage Series

With yesterday's matches, the 2002-2003 Louis Vuitton Cup quarter finals are over. The Swedes of Victory Challenge won by 4-1 over the French of Le Defi and thus advance to the quarter finals repechage. The same applies to Team Dennis Conner who, by defeating GBR Challenge 4-1, qualifies for the repechage.

OneWorld Challenge announced this afternoon they will race against Team Dennis Conner in the quarter finals repechage. Being the top seeded team at the end of Round Robin Two, OneWorld have the right to choose their opponent. Starting from Saturday November 23, four teams will face each other in the quarter finals repechage in a best of seven series with the following pairings:

Prada Challenge - Victory Challenge OneWorld Challenge - Team Dennis Conner

The two winning teams from this series will advance to the semifinals, where they will face each other in a best of seven series, starting December 9. The two losers will be eliminated from the Louis Vuitton Cup.

Francesco de Angelis, skipper of Luna Rossa, said: "I believe that, from where we stand now in the competition, every opponent is equally dangerous as they all represent an obstacle in our progress to the finals. Sooner or later we will have to face all of them. The Victory Challenge team has trained a lot here in New Zealand, they are well prepared and have obtained good results since Round Robin One. More than thinking about them though, I am thinking about our preparation in view of this important appointment. We know them as opponents and now we will analyze in detail their past races. We have an intense week ahead of us from all points of view but we are sure of our objectives and we know what the stakes are. Work at our base is going well. We sailed today on ITA 80 on which we are continuing the development of mast and sails e we will keep training on this boat until ITA 74 is ready to sail again."

Of the initial nine challenging teams only six are still in the competition: Alinghi who advances directly to the semifinals with Oracle BMW Racing; Prada, OneWorld, Victory and Team Dennis Conner who have to race in the quarter finals repechage in order to qualify for the semifinals. Three teams have been eliminated so far from the 2002-2003 Louis Vuitton Cup: the Italians of Mascalzone Latino (who were out at the end of Round Robin Two), Le Defi Areva and GBR Challenge (both defeated in the quarter finals).

SCOREBOARD AT THE END OF THE QUARTER FINALS Alinghi Challenge (4 pts) def. Prada Challenge (0 pts) Oracle BMW Racing (4 pts) def. OneWorld Challenge (0 pts) Victory Challenge (4 pts) def. Le Defi Areva (1 pt) Team Dennis Conner (4 pts) def. GBR Challenge (1 pt)

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