Team New Zealand won the America’s Cup on Monday, laying the ghost of 2013 with a crushing victory over Oracle Team USA.
The gritty Kiwi challengers, led by 26-year-old helmsman Peter Burling, downed the defenders 7-1 in the first-to-seven points series.
Burling supplanted Team USA skipper Jimmy Spithill as the youngest helmsman to claim the oldest international trophy in sport.
Spithill was 30 when he steered the USA to victory in 2010, and he propelled their remarkable comeback from 8-1 down to a 9-8 triumph over New Zealand four years ago.
In fact, New Zealand needed eight race wins to get the victory having started at minus-one thanks to the USA’s topping the standings in round-robin qualifying.
But no obstacle was too much for Burling and the innovative Kiwi catamaran that featured a radical cycle-powered grinding system to power its hydraulics.
New Zealand claimed the Cup for the third time, after victories with Black Magic in 1995 and 2000.
Only four countries — the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland — have ever won the coveted trophy, named for the schooner America which won a race round the Isle of Wight in 1851 that was the birth of yachting´s most prestigious competition.
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