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| October 13, 2002 | Sunday | Sha'aban 6, 1423 |
GBR score second major upset
AUCKLAND, Oct 12: Britain’s GBR Challenge scored their second major upset in as many days in the America’s Cup challengers series when they beat rich U.S. syndicate Oracle BMW Racing by 36 seconds Saturday.
The Britons, sailing in their first America’s Cup challenge for 15 years, have now beaten Oracle and strong Swedish team Victory Challenge since shaking up their sailing staff by replacing starting helmsman Andy Green with Olympian Andy Beadsworth on Wednesday.
“I don’t think we made any real mistakes today...crew-wise I think we’re as good as anyone else here,” GBR Challenge head Peter Harrison said.
U.S. challenger OneWorld, led by Australians Peter Gilmour and James Spithill, remain the only unbeaten team among the nine challengers after they outsailed defending Louis Vuitton Cup champions Prada of Italy by 71 seconds.
OneWorld are second in the standings after they were penalised a point before the regatta started for gaining design secrets from other teams.
Biotechnology billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli’s slick Swiss syndicate Alinghi head the challengers standings after beating Victory by 25 seconds on Saturday. Alinghi have completed their eight round robin one races, losing once to OneWorld.
Mascalzone Latino, the second Italian team in the regatta, scored their first win when they downed winless Le Defi Areva of France by more than five minutes.
GBR, the $30 million campaign put together by computer networking entrepreneur Peter Harrison, were considered major underdogs before their race against software billionaire Larry Ellison’s $85 million Oracle team.
Oracle helmsman Peter Holmberg won the pre-start battle over Beadsworth but the British boat overtook Oracle on the first windward leg and led the Americans by 13 seconds at the first mark of the 18.5 nautical mile course.
Oracle moved in front of GBR on the second windward leg but the British boat took back the lead on the fourth, downwind leg, deepening suspicion that Ellison’s boat is slower in light to mid-range wind conditions than many of the other challengers.
Oracle are now clinging on to third place with four points after losing their last two races. They are one point clear of GBR, Prada, Victory and Team Dennis Conner’s Stars & Stripes.
Mascalzone relegated the French team to last place when they beat the bright green Le Defi across the finish line by just four seconds after a tense race.
Le Defi were made to execute a penalty turn for trying to stop the Italians from gybing near the finish line, blowing their finish time out to more than five minutes
Five races postponed by bad weather over the past 10 days will be sailed on Sunday and Monday.
Challengers will sail each other once in each of two round robins to decide which eight progress to the quarter-finals. The winners of the Louis Vuitton Cup will sail against holders Team New Zealand in the America’s Cup in February 2003.—Reuters
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