Oracle Team USA’s bid to turn the tide in its floundering America’s Cup campaign by bringing sailing superstar Ben Ainslie on board failed on Thursday, when Emirates Team New Zealand crushed the defenders in two do-or-die races.
Emirates now have scored six of the nine victories they need to bring home the trophy the yachting world refers to as the Auld Mug.
Oracle, slapped with a jury-imposed two-race penalty, have won only one race and still need to win another 10 to keep the 162-year-old trophy.
Photo: AFP
Government-backed New Zealand finished 66 seconds ahead of software billionaire Larry Ellison’s Oracle in their high-speed catamaran in the second race of the day and 47 seconds ahead in the first heat.
“We cannot give up,” Oracle skipper Jimmy Spithill said at a post-race press conference. “We’ll keep fighting all the way to the end. I’m still convinced we can win races.”
In Thursday’s first race, the sixth of the series, Oracle won the start, but lost the lead upwind on the third leg. In the second match, New Zealand won the start and kept the lead throughout.
Oracle have looked slow against New Zealand on the upwind legs, where they have forfeited leading positions in five races. New Zealand in Thursday’s first race forced Oracle into having to perform a dozen of the taxing maneuvers as the huge catamarans zigzagged into a light 12-knot breeze to the windward mark.
Spithill said the upwind speed differential caught his team off guard.
“I think it is a shock that they’ve got the edge upwind, [but] there’s a lot of racing to go. It’s a long way from over in my mind,” Spithill said.
New Zealand used an aggressive match racing “dial-down” tactic in race six to pass Oracle. The challenger had the right of way as it was about to cross tacks with its foe, and by aiming straight at Oracle forced them to duck and lose distance.
Ainslie, the most successful Olympic sailor of all time, was knighted for his achievements on the water. He took over as tactician aboard the AC72 from American John Kostecki.
The 36-year-old Briton was the skipper of Oracle’s second yacht during training matches and remains a fearful competitor for New Zealand.
“It feels nice to have won six races, but it’s only two-thirds of the way toward winning the America’s Cup,” New Zealand skipper Dean Barker told reporters. “We know it’s far from over.”
Earlier this week, a tactical blunder by Kostecki cost Oracle a lead, allowed New Zealand to cruise into a commanding fourth victory and prompting the US team to call for an unusual time-out.
Oracle started the regatta two points behind because of an unprecedented jury-imposed punishment for illegally modifying the team’s smaller, prototype boats sailed in warmup races.
Though Oracle flies the US flag, substituting Ainslie for Kostecki leaves only one US sailor on the team, trimmer Rome Kirby. All but two of the Emirates sailors hail from New Zealand.
The international jury that punished Oracle in the biggest cheating scandal in America’s Cup history also expelled Kostecki’s brother-in-law, first-choice Oracle wing trimmer Dirk de Ridder, for making illegal boat alterations.
Ellison won the world’s oldest sporting trophy in Valencia, Spain, in 2010 and with it the right to choose his home San Francisco Bay waters as the venue, and the fragile and hard-to-handle twin-hulled yachts with 13-story rigid wing sails as the vessels.
Some sailors have criticized the Oracle chief executive’s decisions, particularly after British Olympic Games gold medalist Andrew “Bart” Simpson was killed when the AC72 of Sweden’s Artemis Racing capsized during a practice exercise in May.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was