Dubai: Emirates Team New Zealand and Mascalzone Latino Audi Team qualified for the semifinals, while Aleph and Synergy were knocked out, as the Louis Vuitton Trophy entered elimination stages on the Viaduct Basin in Auckland yesterday.
Emirates Team New Zealand easily overcame their Russian challengers Synergy.
The Italian favourite Mascalzone Latino defeated Aleph to seal its respective place in the last four stages of the competition that concludes on March 21.
Also keeping their hopes alive of advancing was Artemis with a win against Azzurra, while British challenger, Team Origin, beat the French-German joint bid of All4One to earn the right to continue to battle for the remaining two semifinal spots today.
The Auckland round of the Louis Vuitton Trophy is following a unique qualifying system called the "MacIntyre System" whereby the four teams will now be paired against each other to establish which two are the best.
This pair will then advance for a race, either against Emirates Team New Zealand or Mascalzone Latino.
In today's second elimination round, All4One have selected Azzurra as their opponent, leaving Artemis to race against Teamorigin.
Both pairings will sail "first to two" matches where the first team to win two races will advance to the semifinals either against Emirates Team New Zealand or Mascalzone Latino.
Results: Emirates Team New Zealand bt Synergy; Mascalzone Latino Audi Team bt Aleph; Teamorigin bt All4One; Artemis bt Azzurra.
Pairings for Thursday: Teamorigin vs Artemis; All4One vs Azzurra; Artemis vs Teamorigin; Teamorigin vs Artemis; Azzura vs All4One; All4One vs Azzura.
