Sailing: Britain's challengers dig deep to rescue day

Stuart Alexander
Friday 01 November 2002 20:00 EST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

With the wick turned full up, two more sets of races brought mixed feelings for Britain's challenge for the America's Cup.

The morning was bitter for the GBR Challenge as the team they most wanted to beat in order to give themselves increased leverage for the quarter-final pairings, Victory Challenge of Sweden, just powered away from them. The skipper Ian Walker is used to keeping his opponents under pressure, but this time there were few opportunities, and an overnight change to the boat's configuration left it unable to match the height and speed.

It was in the second race of the day, against Le Defi Areva, that the British were able to dig deep again and come back from being behind at the half-way mark, exploit some frail French boat handling and tactics and win by 14 seconds.

All is now finely poised for a completion of the second round robin – weather permitting – tomorrow. The British will know who their quarter-final opponents will be, and the feverish work to prepare a boat for that best-of-seven pairing will begin.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in