Yachting: Another win for Team NZ

Emirates Team New Zealand remained at op the leaderboard after nine race in the latest pre-America's Cup yachting regatta in Valencia, Spain, overnight.

A win by 30 seconds over Team Shosholoza, of South Africa, maintained the New Zealanders' unblemished record and lifted them to nine points after nine races.

They are one point clear of America's Cup holders Alinghi, of Switzerland, and Luna Rossa, of Italy.

Only one flight was sailed today.

The breeze was light and shifty and racing was delayed for two hours before officials decided conditions were settled enough for racing.

It was then after 4pm (local time), too late to run the second flight, which included the much anticipated showdown between New Zealand and Alinghi.

That match has been postponed until tomorrow when the New Zealanders will also face BMW Oracle.

Their race today against the much-improved Shosholoza was tight throughout.

"We always expected Shosholoza to put up a real fight. They've added some good new people to the sailing crew this year and they've got RSA 83 going well," Team New Zealand leader Grant Dalton said.

" Throw the light and shifty breeze into the equation and it was a race either team could win.

"We couldn't afford to let too much separation occur. The breeze was quite patchy and we could not risk Shosholoza getting away."

NZL 84 clearly won the start, crossing the line 6sec ahead of RSA 83. At the top mark the margin was 35sec to NZL 84, narrowing to 19sec and by the end of the second beat to 10sec.

On the final run NZL 84 extended and won comfortably.

- NZPA