world matching tour

18 JUNE 2010

ISAF World Match Racing Tour Appoints Jim O’Toole as CEO

20 Year Veteran of the Sports Management Industry Joins WMRT

ISAF World Match Racing Tour Appoints Jim O’Toole as CEO London, UK – 18 June 2010 – The ISAF World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) has named Jim O'Toole as the Chief Executive Officer of the professional sailing series as they work to widen the appeal of one of the world's most thrilling and popular sporting events. He will take up the appointment from 1st July.

O’Toole has had a 20 year history of working within the sports industry and has had great exposure to the marine sports industry as the former CEO of the Powerboat P1 World Championship. His sports marketing focused career background will prove a major asset to the World Match Racing Tour.

He joins from the sports marketing firm Armstrong Kennedy Consulting where he has worked with; the FA Premier League and Moneygram International and has had previous experience running WPP’s Sports & Entertainment agency ‘Ogilvy Action’ where O’Toole consulted to a range of global brands and rights holders including; Manchester United Football Club, FIFA, Williams F1, AIG and Vodafone.

Patrick Lim, Executive Chairman, World Match Racing Tour, sees O’Toole's entry to the WMRT Team as a very positive step to help build the future of the international series, “The vision for the Tour is to grow the number and quality of events across Asia, Europe and the Americas. We have ambitious plans which will see us grow our brand dramatically as we build upon the success of recent years with more host city partnerships in key markets, a broader media platform and a stronger commercial proposition for sponsors and manufacturers. Jim’s experience will be invaluable in the next stage of our development and we look forward to having him onboard”.

While, Peter Gilmour, President of the WMRT said that the existing team has shown tremendous commitment and are now welcoming Jim onboard to help steer the tour towards its longer term goals. O’Toole added, “I join the Tour at an incredibly exciting time in its growth. The new ownership team have a clear and ambitious strategy to develop a proven global property; I look forward to bringing my experience to bear as we build it into an even stronger proposition for all of our stakeholders.”

For access to high resolution images please register at www.wmrt.com under Multimedia.

2010 ISAF World Match Racing Tour Standings

(After Stage 3 of 10)
1 Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team 65 Points
2 Adam Minoprio (NZL) BlackMatch Racing 39 Points
3 Ian Williams (GBR) Team GAC Pindar 30 Points
4 Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team 28 Points
5 Francesco Bruni (ITA) Azzurra 23 Points
6 Ben Ainslie (GBR) TEAMORIGIN 20 Points
- Jesper Radich (SWE) Radich Racing Team 20 Points
8 Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing 18 Points
9 Paolo Cian (ITA) Team Italia 16 Points
10 Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Gill Global Team 15 Points

2010 Tour Card Holders:

Adam Minoprio (NZL) ETNZ/BlackMatch Racing
Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team
Ben Ainslie (GBR) TEAMORIGIN
Francesco Bruni (ITA) Azzurra
Peter Gilmour (AUS) YANMAR Racing
Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Hansen Global Team Bertrand Pace (FRA) Aleph Sailing Team
Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team
Ian Williams (GBR) Team GAC Pindar

About the ISAF World Match Racing Tour: The World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) is the leading professional sailing series featuring 10 World Championship events across the globe, sanctioned by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) with “Special Event” status.

The World Tour awards over US$1.5million in prize money with points awarded at each event culminating in the crowning of the “ISAF Match Racing World Champion”. In addition, an incentive to compete in the world’s premier sailing series just got bigger. A US$250,000 overall prize pool for the top nine teams with a $50,000 bonus for the outright winner of next year’s World Match Racing Tour is now on offer.

Events utilise the same “match race” format used in the America’s Cup with racing taking place in identically supplied racing yachts which places a focuses on team work and skill. Racing takes place close to the shore for the general public to follow the races as virtual on-the-water stadiums.

Media and television highlights coverage reaches over 2.1 billion households in excess of 183 countries around the world.

ISAF World Match Racing Tour Calendar

Match Race France 6 - 11 April Marseille, France
Match Race Germany 19 – 24 May Langenargen, Germany
Korea Match Cup 8 – 13 June Gyeonggi, South Korea
Portimão Portugal Match Cup 22 – 27 June Portimão, Portugal
Match Cup Sweden 5 – 11 July Marstrand, Sweden
St Moritz Match Race 31 Aug – 5 Sept St Moritz, Switzerland
Danish Open 8 – 12 Sept Bornholm, Denmark
Argo Group Gold Cup 4 – 10 Oct Hamilton, Bermuda
Qingdao Match Cup 19 – 24 Oct Qingdao, China
Monsoon Cup 30 Nov – 5 Dec Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia

Facebook Group name – World MatchRacingTour http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/World-Match-RacingTour/307841498309?ref=ts Twitter Profile name – worldmrt http://twitter.com/worldmrt

To View Footage http://www.wmrt.com/video-archive.html Access to Footage ftp.wmrt.com

 

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