|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE |  |
No distractions New Zealand ready to defend America's Cup
Posted: Friday February 18, 2000 05:36 PM
AUCKLAND (Reuters) -- Russell Coutts, the experienced skipper of America's Cup defenders Team New Zealand, has switched off his mobile phone and will not tolerate distractions. Coutts, 37, is concentrating totally on winning five of the next nine races he sails against Italian team Prada Challenge starting on Saturday. That is what he needs to do to ensure that New Zealand becomes the first successful non-American defender in the 149-year history of the America's Cup. Those who know Coutts and his ultra-competitive style are used to this pre-event "switch off" from the outside world. It was there at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles when he won a gold medal sailing the single-handed Finn class. And it was evident again at the America's Cup in 1995, when he helmed New Zealand to a 5-0 whitewash of Young America and helped it become only the second non-American boat to win the Cup after Australia II's success in 1983. Coutts has been keeping a low profile in Auckland. "I'm not here for public relations, I'm here to race yachts," he said. Coutts is one of only two people to have been at the helm of an America's Cup winner and to have won an Olympic gold medal. He shares the privilege with American sailor Buddy Melges. Coutts also steered German maxi Morning Glory to a race record in the Sydney-Hobart race in 1996 and has won nine world championship titles, his first coming at the 1981 World Youth Championships. A man with seemingly endless energy, Coutts can be found playing golf when he is not sailing yachts and has played some of the world's best courses. Coutts is aware that the pressure is on him and his crew to revive New Zealand's national pride after a series of recent international sporting flops. The biggest of those was France's stunning defeat of the All Blacks in the semifinals of last year's rugby union World Cup. Rugby is almost a religion in New Zealand and the loss plunged the country into a state of mourning. Team New Zealand now have the chance to avenge that loss against another European challenger. "Sure, there is a lot of pressure on us," Coutts said. He does not underestimate his opponents. "They are all good sailors," he said of the Italians. "We regard them very highly -- and they've won the Louis Vuitton [challengers' series]."
| ||||||||||||||||||||
