Sir Ben Ainslie's BAR team secures victory in the America's Cup World Series Portsmouth sailing regatta

Sir Ben Ainslie's Land Rover BAR team has won the America's Cup World Series regatta in Portsmouth today with a strong showing in the '˜Super Sunday' racing.
Sir Ben Ainslie and his Land Rover BAR crew lead the fleet in the America's Cup Wold Series Portsmouth event. Picture: Christopher Ison/PA WireSir Ben Ainslie and his Land Rover BAR crew lead the fleet in the America's Cup Wold Series Portsmouth event. Picture: Christopher Ison/PA Wire
Sir Ben Ainslie and his Land Rover BAR crew lead the fleet in the America's Cup Wold Series Portsmouth event. Picture: Christopher Ison/PA Wire

Home fans cheered the British team on to victory in the first race after a successful day in the Solent yesterday.

Oracle Team USA won the second race, edging Land Rover BAR into second place.

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And then Sir Ben’s team secured the Portsmouth regatta by one point after finishing second to the US Oracle team in the third and final race.

Yesterday, Sir Ben Ainslie and his team won two of the three races and jointly top the event leaderboard with the French Groupama team.

There are three races today, between 1.30pm and 3pm, which were preceded by a show by the Red Bull Matadors aerial display team just after midday.

The Portsmouth event will finish later this afternoon at a prize-giving ceremony attended by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

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The royal couple began the day by visiting the home crew’s base, and later met all the competing teams in the Race Village, alongside children involved in the 1851 Trust, a charity founded to help inspire young people to take up sailing.

William and Kate, who is the charity’s patron, are set to present the winning team with the America’s Cup trophy.

Sir Ben’s team won races two and three on Saturday, having started day one of the competition in fifth place.

Speaking after the wins the four-time Olympic champion said the home crowd had given the team extra motivation to succeed.

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He said: “We wanted to perform well in front of the home crowd to give them something to cheer for - it’s an extra impetus. We’ve been training hard, preparing thoroughly and the guys are really fired up for it.”

He added: “We fought hard and kept going to come away with two wins; and to top the day in such difficult conditions at our home event was a great effort.”

Oracle Team USA are the defending champions.

There’s a gallery of pictures at our dedicated site americascup.portsmouth.co.uk as well as scores of pictures from the Day 1 races.

For more coverage see our dedicated site americascup.portsmouth.co.uk