Alinghi beat NZ in first race

VALENCIA: Alinghi beat Team New Zealand in the first race of the 32nd America's Cup on Saturday in a tight fight that set the pace for the best-of-nine battle for sailing's most coveted prize.

Defenders Alinghi had not raced publicly since April and took a while to settle into a rhythm but an early shift in the breeze gave them an advantage and once they turned downwind they shot ahead, finally crossing the line 35 seconds ahead.

"The first race is always the most exciting one and getting a point made it a great day for us," said Murray Jones, Alinghi's strategist.

More than 70,000 fans from around the world crowded into Valencia for the re-match of the 2003 America's Cup, when Team New Zealand were thrashed 5-0 by Alinghi, a Swiss start-up led by six former Kiwi crew.

"From the day we lost in 2003 we've wanted to be there when the boys win it back. We couldn't have missed today for anything," said John Petersen from Auckland, surrounded by other Kiwi fans wearing T-shirts saying "Let's bring it home".

The boats left port to huge firework displays, blaring boat horns, two squadrons of fighter jets flying in formation and cow bells rung by the Alinghi support team.

Alinghi's new boat SUI100 seemed to be much faster than New Zealand downwind and while the Kiwis fought back up the second beat, the Swiss stretched out again towards the finish line.

Source: China Daily/Agencies