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News
EVEN UP
24 June 2007
It’s all square at the 32nd America’s Cup after Emirates Team New Zealand scored a come from behind win on Sunday afternoon over the Defender, Alinghi. The Kiwis have got a huge monkey off their back. Prior to Sunday’s win, Team New Zealand had dropped six consecutive America’s Cup Match races to Alinghi.
The race also marked Kiwi skipper Dean Barker’s first win over his former team mate Brad Butterworth, the skipper and tactician on Alinghi. It should go a long way to building confidence on the Emirates squad.
“For sure it’s huge for the team to come from behind,” said Kiwi strategist Ray Davies. “That’s always a huge booster and there is nothing worse than going into a day off on a loss because the only way to recover from a loss is to get back out there and redeem yourselves. So it’s just been huge for the team to square it all up again and get a win on the board in the America’s Cup. It’s been a long time coming for Team New Zealand to turn the tables.”
For Alinghi, the loss probably won’t phase this veteran team too much. Butterworth, for example had won 16 consecutive races in the Match, dating back to 1995, prior to Sunday. His team has plenty of winning experience to draw upon. Butterworth didn’t sound too concerned on Sunday evening.
“I think the team always thought they were going to come into this thing with a hard fight on their hands and that’s nothing new,” he said following the race. “We’ve won one and lost one; I think we should have won that race today, and we probably should have pushed our tacking a little closer to them on that last bit but that’s the game. You win some you lose some.”
Both teams are expected to remain ashore today, studying film and photos of the first two races in an effort to learn more about their opponents. Racing will resume tomorrow with the third race of the America’s Cup Match. The score is 1-1. The first team to win five races will win the America’s Cup.
