Back in 2012, Peter Burling and Nathan Outteridge fought a duel in the Olympic 49er final. At that time, the now 31-year-old Australian Nathan Outteridge and his foresailor Iain Jensen prevailed against the five years younger New Zealander Peter Burling and Blair Tuke from New Zealand. Four years later at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, the two crews from Down Under will duel again. This time, the younger Burling prevailed against Outteridge. And how! Even before the final, in which Berliners Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel sailed to bronze, the New Zealanders could no longer be denied gold.
The situation is reminiscent of the current scenario in the America's Cup. After Artemis Racing's victory over Dean Barker's SoftBank Team Japan, Burling and Outteridge will meet again in the final of the Challenger Playoffs on Saturday evening. While Burling and Emirates Team New Zealand had already sent the fallen Cup co-favourites from Team Land Rover BAR home the day before with a commanding 5-2 victory despite capsizing, Outteridge's Swedish team Artemis Racing needed one more day to knock Japan's SoftBank Team Japan out of the race with a 5-3 win.
The press conferences of the loser and the winner. Both helmsmen briefly review their Cup campaign. And Nathan Outteridge sends a few "messages" to the Kiwis
Burling therefore starts the duel with at least two advantages: he has the fastest boat of all the challengers to date and, with 48 hours to prepare for the final, 24 hours more than Outteridge and the Swedes. The Scandinavians had struggled in their semi-final duel with the "Barker Boys" under the Japanese flag, especially on the stormy Wednesday, when their Cup boat looked as if it was about to fall apart with parts of equipment constantly breaking and flying around. In the "demolition derby", the rock-solid and sometimes brilliant Japanese were superior and pulled away to a 3:1 lead. However, the Swedes managed to turn the tide on Thursday with three wins in a row in less strong winds. They went into Friday's duel with a 4-3 lead and one match point against SoftBank Team Japan, who once again got off to a better start in the decisive eighth match.
Match racer Dean Barker has better timing in the start phase. However, this is of no use to him, as his team makes the first, albeit not yet decisive, mistake shortly after rounding the first mark by rounding the mark too wide, while the Swedes take it so sharply that they are able to attack the Japanese for the first time a short time later. The Japanese initially defended their narrow lead according to all the rules of the art of match racing. But on the third of seven sections of the course, the Japanese then make their decisive, irreparable mistake. Under constant attack from the Swedes and in gusty winds, Barker and his crew completely botched a tack - so much so that they fell off the foils, slowed extremely and became easy prey for Outteridge, his shrewd tactician Iain Percy and the Artemis crew. The Swedes attack again, leave the Japanese standing and pass them. After that, SoftBank Team Japan is out of luck, although there is a brief glimpse of hope on the way to the last gate before the final sprint when the Swedes mess up a manoeuvre and slow down extremely. However, they got back on the foils quickly enough to pull away from the approaching Japanese team. 44-year-old Dean Barker's sixth America's Cup outing ends 13 seconds behind at the finish, marking the debut of SoftBank Team Japan, which had an unfortunate start to the decisive day: the Japanese catamaran collided with something on the way to the race course. As there was no time to return to the harbour around 45 minutes before the start, divers had to examine the foils. This prevented the team from sailing in and familiarising themselves with the course and its conditions on the day. "That didn't help us," said Barker.
Experts are not the only ones to pay tribute to the unfortunate loser of the last edition of the Cup, who led 8:1 with the New Zealanders in 2013 only to lose 8:9 to the Oracle team - but they still have the utmost respect for his achievements with the Japanese team, which was only founded two years ago. Barker was farewelled with almost emotional applause at his last press conference in the 35th America's Cup. He himself said: "At the moment I feel very disappointed! But at the same time I am very proud of what we have achieved as a new team in two years. We started with nothing and it was the first Japanese challenge in 17 years. I really hope that this team can continue in the 36th America's Cup.
Artemis helmsman Nathan Outteridge gave an outlook on the final of the challengers starting on Saturday: "If we can push our boat to the limit, then we will experience incredible racing." When asked how he felt about the continuation of the duel with his perennial rival Peter Burling, Outteridge said: "It may be that people are watching. But this final is so much more! It's two well-funded teams going head to head. I think both teams are pretty evenly matched. We have incredible sailors on board. One of our strengths is communication. Iain (editor: Iain Percy, double Olympic champion, tactician, head of sport) gave a great speech to the team when we were 3-1 down against SoftBank. It was about getting back to sailing and trusting our instincts."
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
