Challenger for America’s Cup
Emirates Team New Zealand defeated the American team, BMW Oracle Racing, to top the Louis Vuitton standings Wednesday. The Kiwis won by 1 minute 34 seconds in the 11th flight race to finish atop the rankings with 38 points, one more than BMW Oracle, which had led since the April 20 first race.
Highlights: The first-place finish allowed Emirates Team New Zealand to pick fourth-place Desafio Espanol of Spain for the best-of-nine semifinals.
* Lowlights: An out-of-sorts Desafio Espanol collected a penalty when its hoisting spinnaker brushed the first windward mark to finish almost two minutes off the pace of Italy’s Luna Rossa.
* Oracle: The U.S. team will compete against third-place Luna Rossa in the semifinal.
* What’s next: The semifinals will begin Monday and run through May 24. The America’s Cup final against defending champion Alinghi will be June 23-July 4.
* Quote of the day: “The challenger group as a whole is very, very strong. I think we’re all stronger today than three weeks ago when we started round-robin racing.” -- BMW Oracle skipper Chris Dickson.
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*--* STANDINGS Boat Pts 1. Emirates Team New Zealand 38 2. BMW Oracle Racing 37 3. Luna Rossa Challenge 35 4. Desafio Espanol 2007 29 5. Victory Challenge 26 6. Mascalzone Latino 22
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