America’s Cup: Sir Ben Ainslie turns to history books as Team NZ move within one win of claiming Cup

Sir Ben Ainslie speaks with media after day five of the America's Cup match. Photo / Georgia Schofield, Photosport

By Christopher Reive in Barcelona

Sir Ben Ainslie knows better than most that no team should be written off in the America’s Cup match until one has wrapped up the series.

In 2013, Ainslie was a key member of Oracle Team USA’s miraculous recovery from being match-point down against Team New Zealand to locking the Auld Mug away in the 34th America’s Cup. This morning, his Ineos Britannia team saw Team NZ bring up match point in the 37th edition of the Cup in Barcelona.

Circumstances are different between the two - different venue, different class of yacht, shorter series, Team NZ are the defender not the challenger this time – but after losing both of this morning’s races by wide margins, Ainslie said his team would fight until the end.

“It wasn’t a good day for us. The Kiwis managed to pick the shifts and did a really good job of defending and putting us in a bad spot,” Ainslie said.

“You have to take these things on the chin though, but it’s not over yet, we will keep fighting. The team has fought all the way through this competition, we’ve been on the back foot before and made some huge gains to get us this far.

“We’ve seen in the history of the Cup there’s been some amazing comebacks and we know we’ve got a great team and a great boat.”

Sir Ben Ainslie speaks with media after day five of the America's Cup match. Photo / Georgia Schofield, Photosport

The Brits have already fought back from 4-0 down in this series to close the gap to 4-2 on the scoreboard, taking advantage of big waves and errors made by Team NZ on Thursday morning.

However, with the sea state calming down a bit for this morning’s races and an offshore breeze sweeping over water, the Kiwis looked comfortable as they sailed two clean contests.

It was a day where one side of the course had significantly better breeze than the other, and the Kiwis were able to control that to keep Ineos Britannia behind them all afternoon.

The British weren’t helped by their rudder being damaged in the first race of the day, however, Ainslie played down the impact that had on results.

“It will just be something we need to look at and figure out how to avoid in the future,” he said.

“Despite today’s result the team is in a good place, we know there are no second chances now and that we have to win every race, but the team is positive and they’re all up for the fight as long as it takes.”

With no reserve days left on the calendar, Ineos Britannia will have to find whatever lift they can in the hours after and before racing – though light conditions tomorrow could result in delays or no racing at all, which would afford them more time to work on things to keep their series alive.

Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.