A jubilant Luna Rossa is to race holders Team New Zealand for the America’s Cup after completing an overwhelming 7-1 victory over Ineos Team UK in the challenger series final in Auckland yesterday.
“Fantastico. Fantastico, Bellissimo,” a delighted Luna Rossa helmsman Francesco Bruni said as the Italian entry sealed victory in race eight.
“This is [a] great day for us, a great day for Luna Rossa, a great day for Italy. We are very, very happy. We are in for a good fight for the America’s Cup now,” he said.
Photo: AFP
Luna Rossa began the day with a 5-1 lead and — with the Team New Zealand crew keeping a close watch on proceedings — they comprehensively won races seven and eight to take an unbeatable lead in the best of 13 series.
They won race seven by 1 minute, 45 seconds and wrapped up the challengers’ elimination series with a 56-second margin in race eight to crush the hopes of Ineos Team UK skipper, British sailing legend Ben Ainslie.
For most of the series, the key difference was the ability of Luna Rossa cohelmsman Jimmy Spithill to outmaneuver Ainslie at the start, and inevitably the first across the start line was the first to finish.
Ainslie won the start in race six and steered Ineos to its sole victory. He also won the start of race eight, his last-ditch attempt to stay in the contest, but Luna Rossa produced superior speed to take the lead halfway down the first leg in the only overtaking maneuver in the challenger final.
“Sorry guys,” Ainslie could be heard saying to his crew at the end of race eight before later congratulating Luna Rossa.
“I’ve got to say well done Luna Rossa and well done Italy,” Ainslie said.
“I know it’s a big deal in Italy getting into the America’s Cup final,” he said. “We’re obviously disappointed we didn’t get through and we have to go away, go back to the drawing board and see what we can do.”
The first race in the best-of-13 America’s Cup between Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa is on Saturday next week.
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
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but