SailGP’s fourth season started on Friday the way the first three ended, with Tom Slingsby skippering Team Australia to the front of the fleet.
Slingsby won two of three fleet races in the Rolex US Sail Grand Prix Chicago and rebounded from an embarrassing error at the start of the second race to take a 26-25 lead over rival Peter Burling of New Zealand.
Phil Robertson had Canada in third with 24 points and Nicolai Sehested steered Denmark into fourth with 21 in the fleet of identical 50-foot foiling catamarans.
Photo: AP
After two more fleet races off Navy Pier yesterday, the top three boats are to advance to the Grand Final in the first of 12 regattas.
“It feels amazing. We sailed really well today,” said Slingsby, an Olympic gold medalist and former America’s Cup champion. “It feels like we sort of took off where we left off in Season 3. A lot of confidence, everyone was having a great time, we were all laughing and joking and it was great to to get a good day on the board.”
The Kiwi boat went 4-2-2. Slingsby beat Burling in a drag race to the finish line of race 3, just like he did in the Grand Final of Season 3 in San Francisco early last month, the third straight time the Australian team claimed the US$1 million, winner-take-all championship of tech titan Larry Ellison’s global league.
Slingsby committed an unfathomable error when he missed the starting line in the second race. Still, he and his crew full of America’s Cup and Olympic veterans rebounded by sailing through the fleet to finish fifth.
“I personally had a shocker in that one. I just got a bit chicken-winged up,” Slinsby said. “We were trying to kill time before the start. And I wasn’t able to kill the time well.”
In danger of hitting the mark, Slingsby bailed out and had to circle back as the rest of the catamarans sped away.
“It was a very beginner’s error, but it was good for us,” said Slingsby, who is to helm the New York Yacht Club’s American Magic in next year’s America’s Cup. “In two of the races we had great starts and sailed out in front of the fleet and it was nice to have a race where we were in the pack and having to battle through the pack. That’s really good practice for us.”
Taiwan kept their hopes of advancing to next year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC) alive with a 9-1 victory over South Africa in a qualifier at the Taipei Dome on Saturday, backed by solid pitching. Taiwan last night played against Nicaragua. As of press time, Nicaragua was leading 6-0. Bouncing back from Friday’s struggles on the mound, when Taiwanese pitchers surrendered 15 runs to Spain, Team Taiwan on Saturday kept the visiting team in check, allowing just one run in the bottom of the fourth inning. Starting pitcher Sha Tzu-chen struck out one and allowed no hits, except for a hit-by-pitch over
Taiwan kept its hopes of advancing to the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) alive with a 9-1 victory over South Africa in a qualifier at the Taipei Dome last night, backed by solid pitching. Bouncing back from Friday’s struggles on the mound, when Taiwanese pitchers surrendered 15 runs to Spain, Team Taiwan kept the visiting team in check, allowing just one run in the bottom of the fourth inning. The win was crucial for Taiwan, as a loss would have eliminated the team from contention for the next WBC. Starting pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸) struck out one and allowed no hits, except for
Team Taiwan are set to face Spain in a win-or-go-home match tonight for the final berth at the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC), despite losing to Nicaragua 6-0 in the WBC qualifier at the Taipei Dome on Sunday. The home team’s loss on Sunday means Nicaragua finish first in the qualifier round in Taipei with a perfect 3-0 record and advances to next year’s finals. After crushing South Africa 9-1 earlier on Sunday, Spain took second place in the four-team qualifier with a 2-1 record. With a 1-2 record, Taiwan finished third while South Africa placed at the bottom with
Team Taiwan avoided missing the World Baseball Classic (WBC) for the first time by defeating Spain 6-3 in a do-or-die game in Taipei last night. After narrowly escaping a mercy-rule loss to Spain in the WBC Qualifiers opener on Friday last week, the home team — winner of last year's WBSC Premier12 title three months ago — got their revenge against the 2023 European champions at Taipei Dome. "It felt quite different from when we won the Premier12," Taiwan captain Chen Chieh-hsien (陳傑憲) said after the game, recalling the ups and downs the team has experienced over the past few days. Unlike in
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