The field for this year’s Argo Group Gold Cup has been further reduced after another team withdrew from the Alpari World Match Racing Tour (AWMRT) event.Turkish skipper Yasar Celal Tumsen was forced to pull out after some of his team-mates were unable to obtain visas from the UK immigration department in time for the regatta, Argo Group Gold Cup chairman Brian Billings confirmed.“The Turkish team withdrew after two of their crew members were unable to get their UK visas before Friday,” he told The Royal Gazette. “And obviously it’s now too late for them to get their visas and travel to Bermuda in time for the start of the Gold Cup.”This means 20 and not 21 teams will now compete for the $100,000 up for grabs in this year’s Gold Cup which begins in Hamilton Harbour tomorrow.The schedule and format for the Gold Cup has been modified to accommodate the reduced field.Teams in two groups of ten will sail against each other in a round-robin with the eventual top four from each group advancing to the quarter-finals.Race officials had originally anticipated as many as 24 teams competing this year. Yet despite the reduced field, the Gold Cup remains the largest event on the AWMRT.Reigning AWMRT champion Ian Williams has emerged as the top seed for this year’s event. And rightfully so following last week’s triumph at the Match Race France that enabled the English skipper to take over top spot on the Tour.Past Gold Cup winner Williams, currently the top match race skipper in the world, defeated Kiwi William Tiller 2-0 in the best-of-three final.Both skippers will face off in the Gold Cup later this week after being pitted together in Group One along with Taylor Canfield (Virgin Islands), Staffan Lindberg (Finland) and Marek Stanczyk (Poland) who are all currently ranked among the top 20 match race sailors in the world.Bermuda’s Blythe Walker, who finished third in the 2006 Gold Cup, has also been placed in Group One along with Stratis Andreadis (Greece), Peter Wickwire (Canada), Magnus Sandberg (Sweden) and David Chapman (Australia).Walker qualified for this year’s Gold Cup after winning the 2012 Bermuda National Championship.Previous AWMRT leader Bjorn Hansen (Sweden) is the second seed this year and will lead Group Two that also includes former Tour champion Adam Minoprio (New Zealand), past Gold Cup winner Johnie Berntsson (Sweden), Eric Monnin (SwitzerlandI) and Nicolai Sehested (Denmark) who are also all ranked among the top 20 match race sailors in the world.Local skipper Lance Fraser, Jurjen Feitsma (Holland), Sergy Musikhin (Russia), Sally Barkow (USA) and Henrique Haddad (Brazil) make up the remainder of Group Two.Fraser, who was extended an invitation to compete in this year’s Gold Cup, is competing with Olympic sailor Jessie Kirkland.A new Gold Cup champion will be crowned this year as last year’s winner Torvar Mirsky (Australia) is not back to defend his title.