After finishing last in the first fleet race, Spain’s Diego Botin won the next two races to take the lead at Saturday’s Mubadala Abu Dhabi Sail Grand Prix.
Botin’s strong performance aboard the red-foil catamaran Los Gallos in a breeze in the Persian Gulf was followed by veterans Jimmy Spithill and Sir Ben Ainslie, who have retired from racing in the technology industry. It was the day after three-time Sail GP winner Tom Slingsby asked the young captain to step up. Billionaire Larry Ellison’s World League.
Botín, who turned 30 at Christmas, became the first Spaniard to win SailGP when he won the Los Angeles Regatta in mid-July, but he has finished on the podium only once in the four regattas since then. is.
Botin has 21 points heading into Sunday’s two-fleet race, after which the top three teams from the 10-boat fleet will advance to the podium race. New Zealand’s Peter Burling, who has won twice this season, finished in second place with a record of 1 win, 10 wins and 2 losses, with 20 points, while Taylor Canfield of the new Team USA finished in third place with 19 points, with a record of 9 wins, 2 losses and 3 draws. ing.
“We started the day in a bad position, last place in the first race, but it was great to come back with two wins and get to the top of the leaderboard,” said Botin. “Everything will be decided tomorrow because it was a very close game.”
Botin got off to a strong start in the second and third races, beating Burling to win the final race.
“This shows that we have done a lot of work in these low wind conditions,” Botin said. “We know it’s all about pulling the trigger well at the start, and we managed to achieve that.”
Mr Burling, a two-time America’s Cup winner and three-time Olympic medal-winning helmsman, said light winds after the start and a new double reach configuration made for a tough day.
“It really was a day that if it wasn’t the first, it would be the last,” Burling said. “If you look at the leaderboard, the first two boats overall had won first place and her 10th place respectively. That shows how difficult it is here.”
Canfield will be competing in his second regatta as captain of the United States. They finished eighth in Dubai last month, weeks after the team was acquired by a group of investors that included former Alabama linebacker Dallas Turner and actress Issa Rae.
“I pushed as hard as I could today,” Canfield said. “I think people underestimated us. Certainly we’re sailing in light air so that helps, but we’re making progress every day. We’re hitting the accelerator. We’re stepping in and we’re not going to back down.”
Slingsby, who lead the season standings by 11 points despite not winning a regatta, are sixth overall with two wins, nine losses and six losses, five points behind the leaders. Two-time Olympic gold medalist Giles Scott, who made his debut in the Emirates GBR as Ainsley’s replacement, finished seventh in all three races and is currently eighth.
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