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Prada in fashion Double win for Italian team at Louis Vuitton CupPosted: Wednesday October 23, 2002 6:07 AMAUCKLAND, New Zealand (CNN) -- The first round of the Louis Vuitton Cup has been completed with Prada beating Italian rival Mascalzone Latino, and kicking off the second round with a victory. Prada beat Mascalzone Latino by 4 minutes, 28 seconds in an all-Italian match Wednesday to complete the extended first round of challenger racing at the America's Cup.
The often-postponed race was held before round robin two began with Mascalzone Latino suffering a second defeat of the day, against OneWorld, and Prada going on to beat Oracle BMW Racing. Britain's GBR beat Team Dennis Conner by 46 seconds and top team Swiss Alinghi beat the lowest-ranked Le Defi Areva by 5 minutes 54 seconds. Prada's victory over Mascalzone Latino, over a 12.5-nautical mile course, gave Prada a 4-4 record at the end of the first round and left Mascalzone Latino with a single win from eight races.
Mascalzone Latino won the start by 19 seconds and led for much of the first beat before Prada picked up a wind shift on the right-hand side of the course and crossed ahead. Prada led by 49 seconds at the first mark and extended downwind to lead by 93 seconds at the second. A huge left hand wind shift on the third leg favoured Prada and saw the defending challenger champion surge ahead by more than 800 meters. It rounded the second windward mark 4:31 ahead and coasted to the finish for a morale-boosting win. Stung by a poor first round performance, Prada made substantial alterations to its race yacht, ITA-74, named Luna Rossa, in seven days set aside for modifications between rounds. The Italian team grafted a new bow, working around the clock, taking only five days over a job which would usually occupy several weeks. Luna Rossa emerged from its boatshed looking much more like its eight challenger rivals, with the now-standard notched or knuckle bow introduced by New Zealand two years ago. Five attempts were made to sail the Prada-Mascalzone match before it was finally completed Wednesday. Even then, the match was delayed by more than 30 minutes because of shifty winds. The four-month competition, which began on October 1, is to find a challenger for America's Cup holder Team New Zealand. It seems likely that it will be either the French Le Defi syndicate or Mascalzone Latino who will go home after less than a month of racing at the conclusion of the second round robin series on November 3 -- unless they can dramatically improve their speed.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
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