Beyond the Cup - Prada Cup Final Day 3 Review. Ineos Team UK fight back to register their first win of the series in race 6. Bianca Cook and Mark Orams join Cheree Kinnear in studio to review all of the news. Video / NZ Herald
COMMENT:
Finally we have some match racing on our hands. It was great to see Ineos Team UK get on the board in their Prada Cup final duel with Luna Rossa.
We all want to see great racing, a contest.
When it's not close, the public begins to lose interest.For the good of the sport, and the wider interest, we need the racing to be tight.
Luna Rossa still have a massive lead but now there is hope for Ineos. We have seen great comebacks in America's Cup racing before.
The next step is for the races to be more of a contest, where the result does not seem so inevitable. Yes, Ineos shared race five and six, but those races didn't involve any lead changes.
The second race did include a lee-bow, which in layman's terms is an uncomfortably close cross where the leading boat sets up to leeward but in front, creating dirty air.
A bit more of that would be terrific for the remaining Cup races.
Ineos Team UK are on the board - but need to get even better. Photo / Dean Purcell
I was certainly nervous about the overall competition after the first race on Saturday, when some superb helming from Jimmy Spithill took the Italian team to their fifth straight win.
This start revealed that Spithill and co. have clearly been mastering a new high and fast mode at the start. Ineos were starting to look down and out after struggling to wipe a penalty imposed on them from the start.
But Ineos managed to turn it around in the second race, leading at the all-important first cross.
They triumphed thanks to a more aggressive start which set them up to leeward and away from any of the dirty Luna Rossa air.
They had to do something with the score at 5-0, and they sailed a much better race than we've previously seen.
Luna Rossa seem very focused as a team and I don't believe this defeat will affect them. Spithill is an incredible helmsman, especially at the starts, and he will remain composed and focused. But the race six victory is a massive boost for Sir Ben Ainslie and Ineos.
So, we finally saw some exciting match racing in the Prada Cup final, and the grinders' heart rates would have been pretty high through those tacking duels.
The public should be put in a similar state by gripping racing. We need to be kept on the edge of our seat. Fingers crossed.
