Sports
Sen. Whitehouse Congratulates Kirby On Win
One million fans visited the official America's Cup venues at Piers 27/29 and Marina Green since they opened on July 4, and hundreds of thousands more lined the shores of San Francisco Bay to catch a glimpse of the flying, foiling AC72.
ORACLE TEAM USA won the 34th America’s Cup in a winner-take-all 19th race, defeating challenger Emirates Team New Zealand by 44 seconds in Wednesday's clincher.
“Congratulations to Larry Ellison and his team, particularly Newport’s own Rome Kirby, on their exciting and amazing comeback in the America’s Cup, wrote Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse in a statement. "I’m proud that Team USA prevailed today, as it did so many times during the fifty years when the races were held in Newport. Today’s victory ensures that the cup will remain where it belongs – here in America.”
Led by 35-year-old skipper Jimmy Spithill, ORACLE TEAM USA won by the score of 9-8.This is the second America’s Cup win for ORACLE TEAM USA and Spithill, which won the 162-year-old trophy in Valencia, Spain, in February 2010. Then 30 years of age, Spithill became the youngest to ever skipper a Cup winning team.
In the past week ORACLE TEAM USA has steadily improved its boatspeed to the point where it could hydrofoil upwind at 30-32 knots, incredible performance never seen before in the America’s Cup.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.
