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New Zealand had to settle for second in the SailGP season three grand final as Australia recovered from a last-minute mistake to claim a hat-trick of titles in San Francisco.
The Kiwis seemed to be out of the race after being pushed wide by Australia in a sprint off the start line.
But Burling and his classy crew made huge gains on the fourth leg as they split away from Australia and Great Britain down wind.
SailGP
Australia edged New Zealand to claim a hat-trick of SailGP titles in San Francisco.
They again decided to split from Australia at the bottom mark and when they edged close to the top mark for the last time, Australia stumbled, falling off their foils.
Somehow Australian skipper Tom Slingsby managed to get up and going again as the Kiwis stormed their stern, and he held on over the short dash to the finish line.
“I thought this could be the greatest choke of all time,” Slingsby said as he saw a 200m lead evaporate in a flash.
“That was not the plan, I thought we had lost it after having it the whole way. I was very scared.
“You can win everything and lose the last race. What a race! What a team!”
It’s a brutal format with the season standings seeing the top three teams qualify for the grand final and a US$1m winner-takes-all format.
SailGP
Australia had a commanding lead for most of the grand final where New Zealand was at the back for long periods.
New Zealand did a steady but unspectacular job of qualifying for the final over the five fleet races, adding a sixth and seventh on Monday to Sunday’s 4,7,3 sequence. They seemed content to stay out of trouble and preserve their boat for the money race.
But at the same time they allowed Slingsby’s champion Australian crew to gain invaluable momentum as they took out the individual regatta from Great Britain.
It was all about the grand final and while this was a better effort from New Zealand, they struggled for the sheer pace that Slingsby was exacting from his F50 foiling catamaran.
The late mistake aside, the Australians were simply too good again.
SailGP
Australia have had a monopoly on the SailGP silverware and prevailed again in season three.
This has been a huge season of development for Burling and Bl;air Tuke and their team though. There were fifth in their maiden season last time and rarely featured.
This season they finished second on the championship points table and replicated that position in the grand final.
They won three regattas to Australia’s four and won 16 individual races.
There is little respire with an expanded season four starting in Chicago on June 18.
New Zealand will again host an event with Auckland locked in for the eighth of 12 regattas on March 23-24.
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