D-day at the America’s Cup

It all comes down to this – winner takes all in what has to be one of the most watched races in sailing history.

The 34th America’s Cup is going down to the wire in race 19 today and the challenger, Emirates team New Zealand, is going head to head with defender, Oracle team USA. The teams are locked in a battle of determination, skill and sheer wit and neither is resting on its laurels of 8 points with the first team to win 9 points declared the winner.

Both teams are determined to do their best but the cup favourite Emirates team New Zealand just wants to win the cup and finish the race, with the frustration of coming close to a win being a main factor. According to an article on the official cup website, team New Zealand came close to winning the elusive match point in race 16, but it was just out of reach. The skipper of team New Zealand Dean Barker in the same article vented his frustration.

“It’s a battle and Oracle has stepped it up a lot. We are racing against a boat that is much better than when it first started.”

According to the article, after staging an improbable comeback from 7 points behind and with no margin for error, Oracle team USA has forced a winner-take-all race today.

“It has been a rough road the last couple of days. It is very, very close. We have to sail well, get ahead and win. We are motivated to work even harder to make sure we do finish this thing off. We do believe we can win, we’ve known we can win this thing for a long time,” said Barker.

“It’s one thing to talk about it and another thing to do it. We have to do everything right and sail as well as we can. We’re going to prepare as we have been and we have confidence we can win this. No one’s slightly head down or lacking in confidence. We know if we put the pieces together we’ll be successful.” said Barker on the official cup website. Slated to start at 11.15am today, it promises to be a great race and a perfect finale to the cup. Let the race begin and may the best team win.