Yachting: Team NZ go through

Photo / Chris Cameron, ETNZ

Team New Zealand have advanced directly to the semi-finals of the Louis Vuitton Trophy yachting regatta in La Maddalena, Italy after three quarterfinals were called off this morning (NZ time).

Heavy winds and subsequent delays earlier in the regatta are forcing organisers to shorten the knockout phase.

Team NZ were scheduled to race Italian hopefuls Azzurra but bad light forced that and two other quarterfinals to be cancelled.

The respective top qualifiers from the round-robin phase advance to tomorrow's semis, with the New Zealanders to face Swedish syndicate Artemis and multi-national team All4One to battle Russian outfit Synergy.

The only completed quarterfinal saw Synergy eliminate Mascalzone Latino, winning the best-of-three encounter 2-1.

Earlier, Team NZ won their last race of the round robin phase with a solid one minute 05 seconds defeat of Mascalzone Latino.

Like many matches on the short courses at La Maddalena, the race was won in the pre-start, where bowman Jeremy Lomas and navigator Jules Salter called the timing to the start line with precision.

Skipper Dean Barker gave his opponents no room to move as he went for the pin and forced them over the start line prematurely.

The New Zealanders rounded the first mark 55sec ahead and were never threatened from there.

They finished the round robin phase with a six-win three-loss record, level at the head of the standings with Artemis and All4One.

- NZPA