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America's Cup Format Posted: Thursday January 09, 2003 7:04 PMAUCKLAND (Reuters) -- Swiss syndicate Alinghi will compete against United States syndicate Oracle BMW Racing in the America's Cup challengers series final for the right to challenge holders Team New Zealand in the 31st America's Cup. The syndicates will compete in the best-of-nine Louis Vuitton Cup challengers' final, which starts on Saturday, and the winner will meet Team New Zealand in February. Favorites Alinghi finished the two qualifying round robins as the leading team among the nine challengers after winning 13 of the 16 races they sailed. They then beat defending Challenger champions Prada 4-0 in the quarter-finals before beating Oracle 4-0 in the semi-finals. Oracle won 12 of their 16 races in the two qualifying round robins before thrashing bitter U.S. rivals OneWorld 4-0 in the quarterfinals. The defeat by Alinghi forced them into the semi-final repechage, where they again beat OneWorld 4-0 to reach the final. The final will be a best-of-nine series starting on January 11 and finishing on January 21. The winner will then have a break of almost a month to prepare for the America's Cup match against Team New Zealand.
Challengers' final:
Race 1 - Saturday January 11
Race 2 - Sunday January 12
Race 3 - Monday January 13
Race 4 - Wednesday January 15
Race 5 - Thursday January 16
Race 6 - Friday January 17
Race 7 - Sunday January 19
Race 8 - Monday January 20
Race 9 - Tuesday January 21
The America's Cup is also a best-of-nine race match:
Race 1 - Saturday February 15
Race 2 - Sunday February 16
Race 3 - Tuesday February 18
Race 4 - Thursday February 20
Race 5 - Saturday February 22
Race 6 - Sunday February 23
Race 7 - Tuesday February 25
Race 8 - Thursday February 27
Race 9 - Saturday March 1
If a crew wins the first five races the final four races will be cancelled. Race course Racing for the Louis Vuitton Cup and America's Cup will be held on one of four courses in the Hauraki Gulf. Each course is about 10 miles from the syndicate bases at the Viaduct Harbour in downtown Auckland. The course will be an 18.5-nautical-mile windward-leeward configuration comprising three upwind and three downwind legs of about three miles. The yachts will start upwind and finish downwind, with starboard mark roundings.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
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