Walker dealt match-race lesson

GBR Challenge are based in Auckland

GBR Challenge's Ian Walker and Andy Green suffered a brutal baptism in elite match-racing when they finished in the last two places of the Steinlager/Line 7 Cup in Auckland.

The pair, with two crews made up of the British America's Cup team, finished 11th and 12th respectively in the grade one event, the fourth leg of the Swedish Match Grand Prix sailing tour.

The series, a Formula One circuit for match-racers, attracts most of the America's Cup syndicates.

GBR Challenge skipper Walker won four of his eleven races, while helmsman Green slumped to nine losses in the regatta, which was sailed in identical Bruce Farr-designed sportsboats.

We're real proud to have pulled this one off

Oracle skipper Peter Holmberg

Walker was accompanied by Simon Fry, Matt Cornwell, Richard Sydenham and Jules Salter, while Green's crew consisted of Jim Turner, Chris Main, Ado Stead and Mal Parker.

But neither of the British boats qualified from the round-robin stages to contest the knockout phase.

Walker told the GBR Challenge website: "The crew sailed well and I am really pleased to have won four races in my first ever Grade One match racing event.

"It is disappointing not to have made it through to the next round but we were sailing against some of the best guys in the world and every race was as tough as the next.

"Now I am looking forward to going home to the UK, catching up with my family and friends and seeing the new boat which is being officially named on 12 April in Cowes."

Walker's team were up against the world's best match racers

Peter Holmberg, of Larry Ellison's Oracle Racing Team, won the event on a countback after Sunday's final against Denmark's Jes Gram-Hansen was cancelled due to lack of wind.

Holmberg - who beat Rod Davis 2-1 in the semi-final - told the Swedish Match Tour's official website: "It's a big event and this year the field was probably the biggest I've ever seen here.

"We're real proud to have pulled this one off."

Meanwhile, Hansen - who beat Paolo Cian in the last four - said: "It is always a disappointment not to race in the final, when you reach the final.

"But we are very pleased to have reached it and there will be another final some day."

Spanning the globe, the eight-event Swedish Match Tour began in Italy in July 2001 and culminates in the Swedish Match Cup in Sweden this July.

The Louis Vuitton Cup, the challengers' series for the right to race Team New Zealand for the America's Cup in February 2003, will begin in Auckland in October.

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Final results from the Steinlager/Line 7 regatta on Auckland's Waitemata Harbour:

1 - Peter Holmberg (USA), Oracle Challenge
2 - Jes Gram-Hansen (Den)
3 - Paolo Cian (Ita), Mascalzone Latino Challenge
4 - Rod Davis (Ita), Prada Challenge
5 - Gavin Brady (Ita), Prada Challenge
6 - Ken Read (USA), Team Dennis Conner
7 - Magnus Holmberg (Swe), Team SeaLife
8 - Luc Pillot (Fra), Le Defi Areva
9 - Dean Barker (Nzl), Team New Zealand
10 - Ed Baird (USA), Team Musto
11 - Ian Walker (Gbr), GBR Challenge
12 - Andy Green (Gbr), GBR Challenge