The BMW Oracle Racing team has won the 33rd America's Cup. The "USA" team clearly defeated the Swiss crew of the "Alinghi 5" for the second time in a row on Sunday evening off Valencia. This is the 28th time since 1851 that an American team has won the old silver jug.
This is only the fifth time in the history of the Cup that a challenger has managed to beat the defender. The futuristic catamaran of defender Alinghi had too little speed to counter the technologically superior trimaran of the Americans with its radical 68 metre high carbon fibre sail wing in the second duel on Sunday despite a significant improvement, losing the exchange of blows 5 minutes and 26 seconds behind at the finish and 0:2 overall after taking the lead in the meantime and an exciting first section of the course.
This marks the end of Alinghi's era in the Americas Cup ten years after the team was founded by Geneva billionaire and helmsman Ernesto Bertarelli. The team of software giant Larry Ellison (USA), CEO Russell Coutts (New Zealand) and helmsman James Spithill (Australia) brings the Cup back to the country whose first winner "America" once gave the Cup its name, 15 years after the last American defeat in 1995 at the hands of "Young America".
With James Spithill, the world's oldest continuously held sporting trophy has given birth to a new hero 159 years after its premiere: the 30-year-old exceptional sailor from Sydney is the youngest winning helmsman of all time. For "Jimmy Spitfire", who began his Cup career at the helm of the "Young Australia" in 2000 at the age of 20 as the youngest Cup helmsman, the 33rd edition of the Cup marks the peak of his career for the time being.
The decisive factor for the victory, which the Americans had fought for in court, was their superior technology. A more than gigantic Stars & Stripes banner, which four-time America's Cup winner Dennis Conner had sent to the US team as a good luck charm, was added to the mix this weekend. It was the same flag that flew at his base camp in San Diego when he won the America's Cup in 1988.
With the end of this Cup edition, the two-and-a-half-year court battle between plaintiff BMW Oracle Racing and Team Alinghi could also come to an end. Although the New York court has still scheduled a hearing for 25 February, this will be in relation to a lawsuit by the Americans, who now have no reason to do so if Ernesto Bertarelli keeps his word and accepts the result of the Cup duel on the water. It would be a grand gesture after the strife and anger of the past.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
