Britain’s INEOS Britannia were put on notice that Saturday could be their final day at the 37th America’s Cup.
Two race wins for defender Emirates Team New Zealand takes them into a 6 – 2 lead and match-point for the first to seven-win series.
The British team will now need to win the next four races back-to-back to tie the series and take it too a final decider.
Although possible, and skipper Ben Ainslie has succeded previously in this situation – in 2013 – it seems unlikely that the Kiwis will let them slip away now.
Hopes were high for further progress following the two wins on Wednesday that brought the Brits back into contention, but a revived New Zealand team turned small advantages from the starts into confident victories.
The first, race 7, started evenly with the Ineos Britannia taking a small lead off the line, but a wind-shift favoured Emirates Team NZ and they took a 230+ metre lead, rounding gate 1, 12 seconds clear.
There was no way back for Ineos, and Emirates Team NZ extended their lead relentlessly to 1100 metres and cross the finish 1 min 13 sec ahead.
Race 8 was another close start, Ineos Britannia took the RH end and headed to the RH side, while Emirates Team NZ took the LH side.
At the first cross the Kiwis had a 140 metre lead and led round the first gate by 15 sec.
Again the Brits were not able to make any inroads into their lead, and by gate 7 were 50 sec and 900 meters down.
Eventually finishing 55 sec behind the Kiwis who put themselves back in control and just one win away from successfully defending the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup.
Two races are scheduled for Saturday, and we will see either a swift conclusion, or can Ainslie and Co defy the odds and stretch this Cup to its limits?
When Ben Ainslie was asked what his message was to the team after a difficult day, he replied:
“Same message. It’s the game of the Cup, it’s the first to win seven, and we’ve got to win five more, so we’ve just got to keep going.
It’s going to be different conditions tomorrow and of course the pressure is on, we’ve got to win every race from now on in, but why not? I’ve always believed that pressure is a privilege, that’s why we’re here.
We wanted to be racing in the Cup. I would prefer to be 6-2 up rather than 6-2 behind – but anything is possible.”
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