Australia yesterday won the New Zealand leg of the SailGP series, which was overshadowed by a crash on Saturday involving New Zealand and France that left a sailor from each team with serious injuries.
Driver Tom Slingsby steered the Australian Flying Roos to victory in the three-boat final ahead of Spain and the UK. The UK won the first event of the series in Perth, Australia, and now share the overall series lead with the Australians.
Organizers broke the fleet into two groups for racing on the second day because of expected high winds.
Photo: EPA
For the first time in SailGP history 13 boats competed on Saturday and congestion on a narrow course might have been a factor in the crash, which saw the New Zealand and French boats extensively damaged.
French strategist Manon Audinet was hurled so violently into the left steering wheel on Team DS France that she broke it while sustaining abdominal injuries.
Louis Sinclair, a grinder for New Zealand, sustained compound fractures to both legs when the Black Foils and France collided at almost 90kph.
The third race of the Auckland leg of the 12-nation competition for catamarans was abandoned.
“Sinclair has had successful surgery on his right leg overnight after injuries sustained during yesterday’s collision with France,’ the New Zealand team said in a statement, adding that it would conduct a comprehensive review of the incident in coordination with SailGP.
The New Zealand boat made a close pass in front of the French. Headed for the Italian boat, the Black Foils spun and jumped back into the path of the French. The French tried to steer away, but sideswiped the Black Foils.
“Everything happened so quickly — it’s still super cloudy in my head and I haven’t reviewed the footage or spoken to the umpires,” France’s Quentin Delapierre said. “This was tough for everyone on both teams.”
New Zealand and France now face a tight schedule to repair their boats in time for the next leg of the series in Sydney, which starts on Feb. 28.
France sustained damage to one hull, but New Zealand’s yacht seems to be far more extensively damaged.
Sailors yesterday raced in gusty conditions ahead of an impending thunderstorm and the highest speed recorded by any of the matching 15.3m catamarans was 101.99kph.
NO HARD FEELINGS: Taiwan’s Lin Hsiang-ti and Indonesia’s Dhinda Amartya Pratiwi embraced after fighting to a tense and rare 30-29 final game in their Uber Cup match The Taiwanese men’s team on Wednesday fought back from the brink of elimination to defeat Denmark in Group C and advance to the quarter-finals of the Thomas Cup, while the women’s team were to face South Korea after press time last night in the Uber Cup quarter-finals in Horsens, Denmark. In the first match, Taiwan’s top shuttler Chou Tien-chen faced a familiar opponent in world No. 3 Anders Antonsen. It was their 16th head-to-head matchup, with the Dane taking his fourth victory in a row against former world No. 2 Chou, winning 21-14, 13-21, 21-15 in 1 hour, 22 minutes. The
Marta Kostyuk’s maiden WTA 1000 title in Madrid came on Saturday thanks to her power, poise and a pair of unexpected lucky shorts. The world No. 23 beat eighth-ranked Mirra Andreeva 6-3, 7-5 in under 90 minutes to secure the most prestigious trophy of her career, her third professional singles title and second in less than a month after Rouen. Yet as the 23-year-old Ukrainian posed for photographs at the Caja Magica, it was not just the silverware that caught the eye. Held alongside her team and her two dogs, Kostyuk showed off a piece of black men’s underwear, prompting
Throwing more than US$5 billion at a divisive new tour and walking away after five seasons does not look like good business, but LIV Golf was not all bad news for Saudi Arabia. Oil-funded LIV, which poached top stars and sent golf’s establishment into a tailspin, helped push the conservative kingdom into global view — one of its key aims, experts said. The exit, confirmed on Thursday after weeks of speculation, does not signal a flight of Saudi money from sport, even after the Middle East war that sparked Iranian attacks around the Gulf, they said. “Saudi Arabia is not
Anastasia Potapova on Wednesday turned tennis heartbreak into history by becoming the first lucky loser to reach a WTA 1000 semi-final with her thrilling 6-1, 6-7 (4/7), 6-3 victory over Karolina Pliskova at the Madrid Open, as Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei exited in the women’s doubles quarter-finals. The Russian-born Austrian, who lost in qualifying last week, has capitalized on her unexpected main draw entry and stunned former world No. 1 Pliskova in a roller-coaster clash despite squandering three match points. Potapova’s run has included impressive victories over former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko and world No. 2 Elena Rybakina. Asked if she had thought
RSS