Great Britain break Aussie hearts in SailGP yet again
Jasper Bruce |
SailGP’s Great Britain have broken Australia’s hearts yet again, beginning their championship defence with an impressive win at the season-opening Perth regatta.
Fighting to recover from defeat to the British in last season’s $2.99 million final, Australia had to settle for second place in the event final against the British and French on a hot, windy Sunday afternoon in Fremantle.
Australia endured a disrupted lead-in to Sunday’s final day of racing, with an injury to star signing Iain Jensen and inconsistent results on Saturday.
But Tom Slingsby’s boat scraped into the final, contested by the event’s top three boats, after a trio of third-placed finishes in Sunday’s final three fleet races.
Australia had their backs against the wall from the outset in the final, conceding a boundary penalty and needing to start the decisive race behind the French and British.
Slingsby’s tactics mostly hinged on trailing the British in the hopes Dylan Fletcher’s boat would make an error, but none was forthcoming.
A photo-finish unfolded for second place, with Australia pipping France by less than a second as the capacity Fremantle crowd cheered.
Britain’s victory came after they won two of three fleet races on Sunday to storm past challengers USA and Sweden and into the final.
They will receive a bonus of a little less than $500,000 for their victory.
Conditions were heavier than on Saturday, with Australia among a handful of boats to reach speeds above 90km/h in southwesterly winds consistently above 30km/h.
Switzerland returned to the water after a crash with New Zealand early on Saturday that was deemed to have been the Kiwis’ fault.
The best result for the Swiss was a fifth-placed finish in the second of Sunday’s three fleet races, with Sebastien Schneiter’s boat finishing the event in 10th place on the overall leaderboard.
The Kiwis could not sail on Sunday after damaging their stern in the crash and have been docked seven penalty points on the season leaderboard, amended from eight on appeal.
They are expected to return to the water for the Auckland SailGP, which begins on February 14.
AAP’s reporter travelled to Perth as a guest of SailGP.
AAP
