Sailing: Racing in 36th America's Cup cleared to begin next week
Italy's Luna Rossa team celebrate after defeating Britain's INEOS Team UK in race eight of the Prada Cup on Auckland's Waitemata Harbour on Sunday, Feb 21, 2021. (Photo: AP/Alex Burton, NZ Herald)
AUCKLAND: Racing in the 36th match for sailing’s America Cup between defender Team New Zealand and Italian challenger Luna Rossa will begin next Wednesday (Mar 10) after the relaxation of COVID-19 lockdown regulations in host city Auckland.
The Cup Match was due to begin on Saturday, but was pushed back to Wednesday when Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, moved to alert level three after a small community outbreak.
The outbreak is now thought contained and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced that Auckland will move to alert level two from Sunday. That will allow racing to take place in the best-of-13 race Match, albeit without crowds at the Cup village or fan zones ashore.
Two races will be sailed on Wednesday, with an off-day Thursday. Racing will continue on the next four days - Mar 12 to 15 - and continue each day afterwards until one team has won seven races.
