ITALY'S PAOLO CIAN FIRST TO MAKE QUARTER-FINAL

KUALA TERENGGANU (Malaysia), Dec 5 (Bernama)-- Italy's Paolo Cian and his
Shosholoza racing team were the first to book a place in the quarter-final of
the prestigious Monsoon Cup sailing competition when they collected seven points
after the second day of the qualifying rounds in Pulau Duyong (Duyong Island)off
this east coast city Thursday.

Cian added five points to the two he collected Wednesday to surge ahead of
the 11 teams competing in the qualifiers, which is being held in the round robin
format.

Close behind are New Zealand's Adam Minoprio of Black Match Racing and
Torvar Mirsky of the Mirsky Racing Team (Australia). The two teams have six
points a piece with Minoprio having to race four more rounds while Mirsky three.

Ian Williams of Team Pindar has to work extra hard tomorrow to qualify for
Saturday's quarterfinals as he has only four points after two days of
competition.

It was a tough day for the racers with a number of collisions taking place
leading to penalty points for the teams involved.

Among them was 2005 Monsoon Cup champion Peter Gilmour of the Pizza-La
Sailing team whose yacht made contact with Briton Ben Ainslie's Team
Origin and Williams' with Swede Magnus Holmberg's Victory Challenge.

Gilmour was beset with more misfortune when his yacht knocked into an
umpire's boat. Both boats were reported to have sustained damage as a result of
the collision.

Speaking at a press conference later, Cian said he was very pleased with
Thursday's outcome and pledged to go all out for more points Friday.

The Monsoon Cup is the last leg of the World Match Racing Tour.The final
is scheduled for Sunday.
-- BERNAMA