Seattle's OneWorld will race New York's Stars & Stripes and Prada of Italy will take on Sweden's Victory Challenge in quarterfinal repechages starting Saturday at the America's Cup off Auckland.
OneWorld was expected to avoid its American rival which has made startling performance gains since it put forward its salvaged yacht, USA-77, in the quarterfinals which ended Monday. Instead, it elected to promote all-American and all-European repechages.
The best-of-seven race ``second-chance'' repechages combine the losers of the top four quarterfinals, OneWorld and Prada, and the winners of the bottom four matches, Victory and Stars & Stripes. OneWorld, as the highest-ranked team, had the right to choose its opponent.
The decision, eventually made by OneWorld's crew, had to be made within 24 hours of the conclusion of the quarterfinals. The announcement came three hours before the deadline yesterday.
``We put it to the team and at the end of the day we decided this was the best decision for us,'' said OneWorld chief executive Gary Wright.
Spokesman Bob Ratliffe said arguments could be formed for racing any prospective opponent. He declined to outline the rationale for its decision but it appears OneWorld has decided to hit Stars & Stripes before it becomes too strong.
The New York team headed by Cup legend Dennis Conner won only six of its 16 races in rounds one and two of the challenger series, qualifying for the quarterfinals in seventh place among eight teams.
When it swapped its first race yacht, USA-66, for its second USA-77, which sank and was salvaged off Long Beach, California, in mid-July it made sudden and impressive games.
Stars & Stripes beat Britain's GBR Challenge 4-1 in its quarterfinal series, losing race one only because of a pre-start penalty. It swept the next four races by an average margin of more than a minute.
``Stars & Stripes are a tough teams but if we can't do well against them now we can't do well against them in two weeks,'' Ratliffe said.
His comments seemed to indicate OneWorld's concern that Stars & Stripes are a team rapidly gaining in confidence and drawing more speed from USA-77. For that reason they consider it safer to strike them now than in a possible semifinal starting Dec. 9.
Ratliffe said Prada, Victory and Stars & Stripes all had obvious strengths.
``We could have made the decision with a coin toss and we could rationalize it until the cow's come home. The truth is they're all tough teams. Stars & Stripes are a tough group and their boat is quite fast.''
Stars & Stripes and Victory had both indicated their reluctance to be chosen by OneWorld.
``It would make us feel better if they picked someone else but it doesn't make much difference,'' said Victory helmsman Jesper Bank.
``To be honest we've seen quite a performance increase in the Stars & Stripes campaign. I would be a little worried picking Stars & Stripes as they have improved.''
Stars and Stripes helmsman Kenny Read hoped OneWorld would pass over his team, if only for reasons of apparent prestige.
``I kind of agree with Jesper to be honest,'' he said. ``I think we're a little more dangerous right now.
``We don't want to be chosen just for the sake of being chosen. We want them to be chosen. It just doesn't look good if you get chosen as the worst guy.''
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Marcus Rashford’s first goals for Aston Villa on Sunday inspired a 3-0 win against Preston North End that sent his side into the FA Cup semi-finals for the first time in 10 years. Rashford struck twice in the second half at Deepdale to end Preston’s stubborn resistance before Jacob Ramsey wrapped up Villa’s long-awaited return to the last four. Villa are to face Crystal Palace — 3-0 winners at Fulham on Saturday — in the semi-finals at Wembley Stadium in London. Revitalized since joining Villa on loan from Manchester United during the January transfer window, Rashford is beginning to show the form that
RSS