The battle between the world’s two greatest sailors, Australia’s Tom Slingbsy and Great Britain’s Sir Ben Ainslie, erupted on Sydney Harbour as the teams went head-to-head in the final match race at the SailGP Season 2 opener.

Despite delivering a dominant second day of racing which secured qualification for Team Australia in the final match race against Team Great Britain, Slingsby was unable to run down Ainslie, whose impressive performance helped secure the team’s first title as Sydney SailGP Champions.

Ainslie was able to secure an early lead in the match race, after Slingsby and the team found themselves behind from the start, incurring a penalty for entering the start box early.

Slingsby said, “It was nice to perform well today to get into the match race, but I’m disappointed I made an error. If we’d sailed a great race and they beat us, that’s fine, but to get that penalty in the pre-start with no wind meant we were a sitting duck and couldn't get it done.

Reflecting on some of the costly errors incurred by the team during racing, Slingsby said “as a team, our speed, our teamwork and our maneuvers are all fine, it’s just that when the pressure came on at times we made mistakes. The Great Britain team sailed unbelievably over the two days, but if we sail as well as we know we can then (the other teams) won’t be an issue. We just need to stop making the errors we did here.”

Ainslie, the most decorated sailor in Olympic history, was making his SailGP debut and was quick to divert credit for the victory to his teammates, which included Australian Iain Jensen (a 2012 Olympic Games Gold Medalist).

“I have enjoyed this fortnight in Sydney immensely and it’s certainly been one of the best sailing events I have ever taken part in,” Ainslie said. “Having the team that I have around me, I thought that we could be in good shape; we have a lot of experienced guys, we came together as a good team and it’s great to finish as winners. 

“We still have a lot of small things we can improve on, we will go away ourselves and look at that, but we’ll keep racing hard - it’s been a magical first event.”
Nathan Outteridge’s Japan team were narrowly pipped to third place, ahead of the United States and a youthful Spanish team, helmed by Phil Robertson, who showed plenty of aggression and may well have finished higher on the standings if not for a points deduction applied after a day one collision with France. Billy Besson’s French team were able to return to the water on day two, after missing two races on day one as a result of that collision, finishing behind Denmark in seventh position.

The next SailGP leg will be held in San Francisco on May 2 and 3, before the Championship heads on to New York, Cowes (UK) and Copenhagen.
SYDNEY SAILGP, 2020: FINAL STANDINGS (pre-Match Race)
●    1st: Great Britain SailGP Team 47pts 
●    2nd: Australia SailGP Team 42pts 
●    3rd: Japan SailGP Team 39pts
●    4th: Spain SailGP Team 31pts (9 pts deducted on Day One)
●    5th: United States SailGP Team 31pts 
●    6th: Denmark SailGP Team 22pts (2 pts deducted on Day One)
●    7th: France SailGP Team 14pts

ABOUT SAILGP:
SailGP is racing redefined. Established in 2018 and headquartered in London and New York, SailGP is an annual, global sports championship featuring bold, cutting-edge technology and awe-inspiring athleticism. The fan-centric, inshore racing that is powered by nature takes place in some of the most iconic harbors around the globe and culminates with a $1 million winner-takes-all match race. Rival national teams battle it out in identical supercharged F50 catamarans, engineered for intense racing at electrifying speeds exceeding 50 knots (nearly 60 mph/100 kph). Visit SailGP.com for more information.