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Champagne for winners Tears for beaten America's Cup challengersPosted: Monday November 18, 2002 11:15 AMAUCKLAND (Reuters) -- There were tears on board British and French yachts on Monday after GBR Challenge and Le Defi Areva became the latest teams eliminated from the America's Cup challengers series. GBR, Britains first America's Cup challenge for 15 years, were beaten 4-1 in their sudden-death challengers quarterfinal against Team Dennis Conner with the Americans winning the final race of the best-of-seven series by one minute and 42 seconds. Le Defi also lost their quarterfinal by 4-1 to Sweden's Victory Challenge after succumbing in their last race by two minutes and 34 seconds in difficult, shifting wind conditions in the Hauraki Gulf off New Zealand's largest city. GBR, backed by computer networking entrepreneur Peter Harrison, rarely troubled Conner's team of America's Cup veterans who also had a boat that appeared faster than the Britons in most conditions.
"I don't cry very often but today I had a tear in my eye when we went out and I had a tear in my eye when we came back," GBR skipper Ian Walker told reporters. "But when we look back on this we will look back with pride. As someone joked on the way in, we will have more time than the rest to prepare for the next one," he said. Harrison built his $30 million team from scratch from August 2000, putting him well behind other syndicates like Switzerland's Alinghi and defending Louis Vuitton Cup challengers champions Prada of Italy. He assembled a crew of British Olympic sailors for his two-boat challenge, although the team's second boat -- rumored to have a radical new double rudder configuration -- never made it to the race course. Harrison said before the regatta that his team wanted to win, but also cautioned that making the semifinals would be regarded as a good result. More money Harrison said he was keen to make another challenge but believed he would need more time and more money. "I have enjoyed it immensely. It is disappointing that it has come to an end," Harrison said. "Given that, I am prepared to put in additional money and carry the campaign on, but I do need partners and sponsors to join me," he said. There were also tears on board the fluorescent green French boat, which managed to win only three of its 21 races. "It has been wonderful to be part of this regatta," said Le Defi team head Xavier de Lesquen. "We know to compete with the other teams we have to be better prepared," he said. Victory meanwhile, celebrated with champagne after reaching the quarterfinals repechage, an admirable performance after the team was rocked by the sudden death of syndicate head Jan Stenbeck from a heart attack in Paris in August. Victory and Team Dennis Conner, seeded fifth and seventh respectively after the qualifying round robins, are in the repechage with U.S. team OneWorld and Prada, the losing two teams from the seeded 1-4 "double chance" quarterfinal group. OneWorld have until Tuesday to nominate who they want to sail in the repechage. The repechage winners go into the semifinals against Alinghi and U.S. team Oracle in December.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
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