Bonnie Jansen in San Francisco
The Black Foils are hurting after they let slip the SailGP season four title in San Francisco.
New Zealand crossed the line third as Spain upset both the Kiwis and three-time champions Australia, earning $3.2 million in prize money.
After dominating the second half of the season New Zealand driver Peter Burling told the Herald it is hard to take.
“We’re all feeling the pain at the moment.”
“We really want to go out with the win, it really felt like we’d been building nicely.”
New Zealand was on the back foot from the start of the final shootout race of the weekend. Trailing at mark one and having to try to fight their way back Spain and Australia positioned themselves well on the racecourse to ride the best of the wind.
In a real underdog story, it was Spain – last season’s bottom team - who claimed the season title. A team who might consider themselves lucky to have even made the final, they stayed clear of the other two teams in the starting box before powering over the top of them the lead at the first mark – ultimately having to make just five manoeuvres in the race.
Meanwhile, it was a poor showing from the Black Foils who went into the race as favourites. Following their weak start, their gamble on the final downwind leg didn’t work.
Burling explains what he felt went wrong: “It definitely got pretty tricky as soon as they got rid of one of the bottom marks.
“We made it a bit of a decision and we took a couple of options that definitely didn’t help us.
“We just struggled to get out of phase, struggled to sail the boat as well as we knew we can.”
“We had a really good fourth race and then just struggled to find a bit of stability in that fifth race which definitely didn’t help our confidence going into the final.”
Any momentum gained also seemed hindered by an issue with the boat between fleet five and the final.
“We had a bit of damage on one of our fairings on the poolside, so [the technicians] were just trying to make sure that was all 100% good to go for the finals.
“So we had a lot of tech team on our boat, but it definitely wasn’t something that slowed us down.”
The Kiwi crew had already qualified for the grand final race before the San Francisco event, meaning results in the five fleet races weren’t necessary and it was a matter of simply protecting their boat and learning the racecourse.
Considering their favourable position, Burling is adamant the pressure didn’t get to his team.
“We love the pressure we wanted to really set their benchmark going into it - we’d have loved to win the San Francisco event as well.
“So really frustrated with the way we didn’t manage to step forward in race five and then really struggled to build up our confidence from there.”
Reflecting on what’s been their best season yet, Burling the bronze medal is tough to take.
“I mean [it was a], super good season for us, but a shame not to be able to wrap it up with a win.”
“I’m really proud of the way the group’s gone about their business all season.”
“It’s been a really tough season...We really wanted to take up a positive here but, it definitely hurts a bit at the moment.”
Referencing Carlos Alcaraz’s Wimbledon victory and the Spanish men’s football team taking out Euro’s 2024, Burling said losing to the Spaniards instead of Trantasman rivals Australia made the result hurt less.
“It was a bit of a consolation prize, I suppose,” Burling laughed, “Obviously [it’s] been an amazing day for Spain sport in general.”
Bonnie Jansen is a multimedia journalist in the NZME sports team. She’s a football commentator and co-host of the Football Fever podcast and was part of the Te Rito cadetship scheme before becoming a fulltime journalist.