Gladiator Fights on With Record Win.
“Gladiator“ heading towards victory in race 3 on day two of the Audi Med Cup in Marseilles
Gladiator, the Langley Holdings sponsored TP52 race yacht, followed up their unexpected victory in the last race of day two of the Audi Med Cup in Marseilles yesterday by notching up a record win in the first race today.
In an audacious start at the committee boat end that saw the Gladiator lock out American boat Quantum, steered by Americas Cup winning helm Ed Baird and favourites for the series, the Gladiator went right up the track off the line into lighter pressure but away from the pack, as they had done yesterday. As the other boats tacked on each other for supremacy on the left, Gladiator sailed into fresher breeze to come from 7th position and were neck and neck by the top half of the beat as the breeze went light and shifty. With Quantum challenging hard coming into the mark sailing on port, they were forced to dip below the Russian boat Synergy and the Gladiator reached the mark in 1st position, rounding 15 seconds ahead.
From there on it was a rout as the Gladiator extended the lead to 51 seconds by the leeward mark, 82 seconds at the second windward mark and by over two minutes at the finish, to become the sensation of the regatta. Never had a Med Cup race been won by such a margin and like Maximus in the film Gladiator, Langley's Gladiator put on a show the likes of which had never been seen as the team, on only their second day of Med Cup racing, clinically dispatched the seven opposing boats, winning the crowd and fellow competitors alike.
After the race Langley Holdings plc Chairman, Tony Langley, who is steering the boat this week said:
"Yesterday was a fabulous result and way beyond my expectations or even hopes. We took that one by just four seconds but to do it again in the next race and by such a margin at this level is just incredible."
See the Gladiator in action in Race 3, day two and Race 1, day three on Audi Med Cup TV at www.medcup.org and interview with Tony Langley on day two highlights.
About Audi Med Cup
The Audi Med Cup (www.medcup.org) is the world's foremost yacht racing circuit, played out over five regattas around the Mediterranean and Portugal. This year's venues are Cascais (Portugal) Marseilles, (France) Cagliari (Sardinia) and Barcelona (Spain) with a World Championship regatta held in Porto Cervo (Sardinia) in October.
About Langley Holdings
Langley Holdings plc is a diverse privately owned UK based engineering group, specialising in capital equipment technologies that are either outright leaders in their field, or niche players. Its principal operating divisions are located in the UK, Germany and France and have a network of over 30 subsidiaries in 17 countries, employing around 2,200 people worldwide. www.langleyholdings.com