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Australia Crowned SailGP Champions

27th March 2022
As SAILGP Australia celebrate their back-to-back successes, they must also start preparing for their title defence with Season 3 starting in just over a month
As SailGP Australia celebrate their back-to-back successes, they must also start preparing for their title defence with Season 3 starting in just over a month

Australia has won the SailGP Championship for a second successive year, beating Japan and the United States in the Grand Final on a crazy, incident-filled day in San Francisco.

The Aussies and Driver Tom Slingsby, who won the inaugural Championship in 2019, defeated incredibly tough conditions to win the entire Mubadala Sail Grand Prix event, before overcoming Nathan Outteridge's Japan and Jimmy Spithill's USA in the winner-takes-all final race.

A crazy day on the Bay saw collisions between France and New Zealand and Spain and the USA, while two races were abandoned and restarted - including the Grand Final itself due to a whale entering the racecourse.

But, once the race was restarted, the Aussies overcame all this adversity to prove their talent once again, and wild cheers greeted their lifting of the Championship trophy in the San Francisco race village.

SAilGP

Despite losing in the final, it was incredible that the United States even managed to race at all, having suffered serious hull damage when the Spanish crashed into their boat during the opening race of the day.

But, despite rapid repair work ensuring they could race, and a huge number of fans cheering them on from the shore, Spithill's team only managed a third place finish in the final, continuing his record of never having actually won a SailGP event.

As Australia celebrate their back-to-back successes, they must also start preparing for their title defence with Season 3 starting in just over a month, with the Bermuda Sail Grand Prix taking place on 14-15 May.

Published in SailGP
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About SailGP

SailGP unites world-class athletic talent and cutting-edge technology. Eight teams representing Australia, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Japan, New Zealand, Spain and the United States will contest eight events held in as many countries over an 11-month period. Following the season opener in Bermuda, the championship visits renowned sailing locations in Italy, the United Kingdom, Denmark, France, Spain and New Zealand. San Francisco, United States, has the honour of closing proceedings with the Grand Final on 26–27 March 2022. Among those vying for the crown is the Great Britain team led by Rolex Testimonee and four-time Rolex World Sailor of the Year, Sir Ben Ainslie, who says: “The sailing world was crying out for the creation of such a concept. SailGP is a major milestone in the evolution of yachting, but it also represents continuity. The combination of state-of-the-art technology and sporting prowess is widening the appeal of sailing.