San Francisco: Emirates Team New Zealand beat defending champion Oracle Team USA twice more on Thursday, moving closer to taking the America’s Cup Down Under for the second time in 18 years.
Team New Zealand leads 6 to minus-1 and needs three more victories to claim the oldest trophy in international sports for the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.
Oracle Team USA, owned by software billionaire Larry Ellison, was docked two points in a cheating scandal. It couldn’t catch the Kiwis even after replacing tactician John Kostecki with British star Ben Ainslie, the most successful sailor in Olympic history.
The Kiwis continued their dominance sailing upwind on San Francisco Bay. They overtook Oracle Team USA on the third leg of Race 6 and won by 47 seconds.
Barker led rival Jimmy Spithill the whole way in Race 7 to rout Oracle by 1 minute, 6 seconds.
