Eight teams from four countries battled it out at the Zerodistanze Cup from 15-16 March at Scarlino Marina in the waters of the Gulf of Follonica.
Going into the event there were two favourites to watch, Mile Armando (ITA) who is currently ranked World #49 on the ISAF Match Race Rankings and Michele Ivaldi (ITA) a former 470 Olympian and tactician on Team Cereef the 2013 RC44 World Champions. Also hoping to make an impact on the ISAF Grade 3 event was Enrico Zennaro (ITA) and the Italian Match Race champion Jacopo Pasini (ITA).
The racing program featured a full round robin and the top four teams proceeded to the semi-finals with the winners going on to face each other in the final.
The round robin was convincingly won by Ivaldi with a 100% score record from seven races, close behind was Thomas Mallindine (GBR) who lost just one race in the round robin. Both teams continued their good form in their respective semi-finals and proceeded to the final.
Going head to head in a tense Petit Final battle was Italian Zennaro and German Adrian Maier-Ring. With one win each going into the final race it was all to play for and the Italian claimed the final race victory and third overall.
In the final the experience and skill of Ivaldi shone through which was too difficult for the less experienced British sailor Mallindine to handle as the final race and Zerodistanze Cup went to Ivaldi.
See full results
here.