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Dubai, United Arab Emirates (November 13, 2022) – Tom Slingsby’s Australia SailGP Team delivered one of the more remarkable victories seen in SailGP to dramatically overtake both France and Great Britain from what had seemed respective winning positions to storm back onto the winner’s podium.
At the close of the Dubai Sail Grand Prix, Australia now leads the championship by nine points from New Zealand, with France one point further back, maintaining its position in the crucial top three placings. A good result from Great Britain in Dubai sees it just two points out of the Grand Final currently with four events left in the season, as the top four teams have started to pull away from the rest of the field.
But on the packed shorelines of Mina Rashid in front of sold out crowds the talk was all about Australia’s come from behind win.
Slingsby said: “I have no idea how we did that to be honest, I would want to replicate that every race if we could because whatever we did there was pretty incredible. That final was a blur, someone will have to explain to me sometime what happened but it was just unreal.”
Sir Ben Ainslie was on track for a first SailGP win in eighteen months as he led right up to the final gate before an error saw Australia and France sweep past them in the final seconds.
Ainslie said: “I think that is one of the best examples of grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory that I have seen for a very long time, it’s hugely frustrating for the team, we had such a good weekend, and just missed the final move, but that’s SailGP, that’s sport, it happens.”
Earlier in the final podium race France had looked to have wrapped up the win as it enjoyed a huge lead, but a tactical error of its own saw Australia and Britain reel them in…
SailGP information – Dubai details – Season 3 scoreboard – YouTube
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