America's Cup: Artemis shocks the competition with a series of victories

Suddenly everyone is talking about Torbjörn Törnqvist's Swedish team Artemis Racing. The team led by helmsman Nathan Outteridge and tactician Iain Percy completed the penultimate multi-day training session in the Great Sound off Bermuda with an unblemished 9:0 record and made an excellent impression. Oracle Team USA with helmsman Jimmy Spithill conceded four defeats in five victories. SoftBank Team Japan (two wins/five losses), Sir Ben Ainslie's Team Land Rover BAR (one win/four losses) and the French Groupama Team France (no wins/four losses) returned to their team camps a little more pensive.

However, Artemis' team manager Iain Percy and his crew have no intention of resting on their laurels: "The competition starts in six weeks' time. We have now reached the end of our campaign where it really counts. These race weeks remain very valuable for us. We have learnt a lot again this time. And we have seen many things that we still need to improve." Here to a video showing a spectacular duel sequence from a match between Artemis and Oracle Team USA.

Cup defender Jimmy Spithill said: "The clock is ticking. Every day counts now. We had some good duels with Artemis, who came out victorious in the series. They just made fewer mistakes than the other teams out there. Japan was also good. The French have spent more hours on the water and are becoming more alert with their AC foils. We have to keep developing our boat, keep making it faster. I'm sure all the other teams will do the same."

Just like Land Rover BAR, whose rather meagre yield in this second training round provided all sorts of talking points. Sir Ben Ainslie's team, however, refers to ongoing design processes. Sailing Crew Manager Jono MacBeth recalled the last America's Cup, in which the defending Oracle Team USA had its back to the wall at 1:8 before technical updates led to a brilliant 9:8 victory. Message: He who laughs last, laughs best. Ainslie didn't want to attach too much importance to this interim result either: "You see new technical updates from all the teams every day. Everyone is finalising their design package. The critical phase is underway. The aim is to get round the circuit faster and more stable than the others. That is the key. It will also be very fascinating to see how the Kiwis present themselves now."

The training duels took place at 15 to 23 knots in a rather higher wind range. The official wind window for the Cup regatta itself is between six and 25 knots. Emirates Team New Zealand was not at the start of this second of three unusual preliminary showdowns in the America's Cup, having only landed in Bermuda with their boat and team a few days ago and having been preparing away from the other teams in their home waters off Auckland. It remains to be seen whether the Kiwis will use the next and already last scheduled window for joint training regattas. The final warm-up matches between the defenders and challengers before the start of the challenger round on 26 May are scheduled for 24-28 April.

The unofficial results of the preliminary matches, round 2

1st Artemis Racing (9:0)

2nd Oracle Team USA (5:4)

3. SoftBank Team Japan (2:5)

4th Land Rover BAR (1:4)

5th Groupama Team France (0:4)