TeamOrigin take an impressive and important race victory

8:35 AM Wed 17 Mar 2010 GMT

'NEW ZEALAND, Auckland, 17th March 2010, Louis Vuitton Trophy, Elimination Round 1, TEAMORIGIN vs ALL4ONE, TEAMORIGIN round the top mark.' Ian Roman/TEAMORIGIN

TEAMORIGIN took an impressive and important race victory against the French/German ALL4ONE team to guarantee their place in the next round tomorrow.

Elimination Round One kicked off today, the eighth day of racing in this exciting and hotly contested Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland regatta. The competition has been intense and the next two days will be critical for all teams, including TEAMORIGIN.

Race one was between the Swedish Artemis team and the Italian Azzurra team, who finished fifth and fourth respectively, in the Round Robin phase. Artemis took control from the start and took the win by 32 seconds guaranteeing them to move forward into tomorrow's Elimination Round Two.

Next up was TEAMORIGIN, whose opponent was the French/German team of ALL4ONE. The result of this match was critical for the British team if they were to retain control of their destiny in the competition. If they won the race, they moved forward into tomorrow's Elimination Round Two; a loss meant they would have to rely on the outcome of the last two races of the day.

NEW ZEALAND, Auckland, 17th March 2010, Louis Vuitton Trophy, Elimination Round 1, TEAMORIGIN vs ALL4ONE, TEAMORIGIN leads ALL4ONE on leg 3. - Ian Roman-TEAMORIGIN

After a short postponement due to strong winds increasing to 25 knots, the warning signal was fired at 1245. Conditions had stabilised, down to 17 knots of wind.

It looked like a fairly quiet and conservative start by both teams, but the reality was that Ainslie was at his finest and controlled the speed and lateral separation of TEAMORIGIN to weather of the opponent in the crucial last run to the start gun. The pair crossed at speed on the gun but TEAMORIGIN had been positioned to stay comfortably to windward of the Franco-German boat managing to slowly move forwards for the first part of the beat.

ALL4ONE were first to tack and passed behind the British yacht, TEAMORIGIN followed suit holding the cards for now and keeping the gas on their French competitor. ALL4ONE were forced to tack off again but needed to keep an eye on Bean Rock on the left hand side of the course with its exclusion zone. TEAMORIGIN rounded mark one 17 seconds ahead.

NEW ZEALAND, Auckland, 17th March 2010, Louis Vuitton Trophy, Elimination Round 1, TEAMORIGIN vs ALL4ONE. TEAMORIGIN. - Ian Roman-TEAMORIGIN

James Spithill, BMWOracle helmsman and winner of the 33rd America's Cup, was in the commentary box watching the race live, and added his views, 'Ben did a really nice job at the start, followed by some classic match race moves, they worked out the small gains up the first beat and ended up with a 3 boat length lead, nice work by TEAMORIGIN guys. We at BMW ORACLE Racing are looking forward to the next Louis Vuitton Trophy event in Italy but watching the level of competition here I'm concerned - any one of these teams can win a race, this is fantastic for our sport.'

On the first run TEAMORIGIN did a nice gybe after responding to ALL4ONE gybing around the mark, the French guys, however, not managing such a great manoeuvre. Both boats headed downwind and round the leeward gate, the wind was building and TEAMORIGIN were still in command with a lead of 20 seconds around the bottom gate mark but still needing to keep their cool, ALL4ONE still very much in the hunt.
Ian Percy, Tactician, calling the shots for Ben Ainslie, was on the look-out as ever, staying in phase with the wind shifts and the moves of the French/German team. TEAMORIGIN were making it look pretty comfortable, stretching out to almost 5 boat lengths by the second weather mark. But with continuing fresh winds the British team were not relaxing as anything could still happen.

NEW ZEALAND, Auckland, 17th March 2010, Louis Vuitton Trophy, Elimination Round 1, TEAMORIGIN vs ALL4ONE, Leg 1. - Ian Roman-TEAMORIGIN

On the last downwind leg, if to prove the point that you can never relax in these boats until you've crossed the finish line, TEAMORIGIN suffered a small issue with a spinnaker sheet and tear in the kite. They lost some distance, but they managed to control it and fly the spinnaker off the tack line while they sorted out their problem. Ben Ainslie and his team managed to hold the lead and took the win by 27 seconds - so all in all an impressive demonstration by the British team and a win that ensures they move on to the next round.

Ian Percy, Tactician, commented on the race win, 'Ben gave us an excellent start, he really is the best in the business on that front, from there I was confident to head right, we had to keep it tight over such a short race course and from there on in it was a pretty classic match race. '

When asked about the difference to yesterday's team performance he added, 'That's just match racing, a couple of things could have gone the other way yesterday and we might have had 2 wins. The most important thing is to 'up' our game after a bad day and move forward. We have to keep the playing field level - whether a good or bad day, the key is never to make the same mistake twice. We are still pretty new to this game so we need to keep moving forward. The racing is so close here with some real quality competition on the course, and for sure no team here is ever going to hand you a race win!'

NEW ZEALAND, Auckland, 17th March 2010, Louis Vuitton Trophy, Elimination Round 1, TEAMORIGIN vs ALL4ONE, off the start line. - Ian Roman-TEAMORIGIN

Mike Sanderson, Team Director, summed up the day, 'A really good day for us today, it's nice to know that when the pressure is on we can sail a good race and get the results we need. We had to go out and win in order to keep control of our destiny into the next round.'

Race 3 had Mascalzone Latino vs Aleph - The Italians ended up in second ranking after RR1 with Aleph in seventh ranking. Aleph lost the match and are eliminated. In the final match of the day Emirates Team New Zealand dispatched Synergy, who are also now eliminated from further competition.

NEW ZEALAND, Auckland, 17th March 2010, Louis Vuitton Trophy, Elimination Round 1, TEAMORIGIN vs ALL4ONE, TEAMORIGIN heads to victory. - Ian Roman-TEAMORIGIN

Elimination Day One : Race results today: (ranking from RR1 shown after each team name)
Race 1: Artemis (SWE) fifth beat Azzurra (ITA) fourth : 30s
Race 2 : TEAMORIGIN (GBR) sixth beat ALL4One (FRA/GER) third : 27s
Race 3: Mascalzone (ITA) second beat Aleph (FRA) seventh : 59s
Race 4: ETNZ (NZL) first beat Synergy (RUS) eighth : 15s
Elimination Round Day TWO : racing for tomorrow, Thursday 18th March:
Match A : TEAMORIGIN (GBR) v Artemis (SWE) - best of 3 series
Match B : ALL4ONE (FRA/GER) v Azzurra (ITA) - best of 3 series

The pairing selection was made by ALL4ONE as the highest ranked winner from RR1 of these four: ALL4ONE selected.

NEW ZEALAND, Auckland, 17th March 2010, Louis Vuitton Trophy, Elimination Round 1, TEAMORIGIN vs ALL4ONE, TEAMORIGIN rounds mark 3. - Ian Roman-TEAMORIGIN

Order of racing tomorrow:

Race 1/Match A : TEAMORIGIN vs Artemis
Race1/Match B : ALL4ONE vs Azzurra
Race 2/Match A : TEAMORIGIN vs Artemis
Race2/Match B : ALL4ONE vs Azzurra
Possible Race 3/Match A : TEAMORIGIN vs Artemis
Possible Race 3/Match A : TEAMORIGIN vs Artemis

The teams swap boats and ends after both first races, and keep the same boats for races 2 and 3 but swop ends.
Aleph (FRA) and Synergy (RUS) are now eliminated from the competition.

Emirates Team New Zealand and Mascalzone Latino go directly into the Semi-final round (to be raced on Friday/possibly Saturday too.

Explanation of how the elimination rounds are working:

. Elimination Round 1: competitors today sailed a knock out series, using the rankings for the RR1 so first v eighth, second v seventh etc. The two highest ranked (using the RR ranking) teams that won their matches in this round advance directly to the semi-finals. The two lowest ranked teams (using the RR ranking) that lost their matches are eliminated
. Elimination Round 2 : the four remaining teams are now paired up and race tomorrow for the two remaining semi final berths, with the winner from each pair advancing and the loser eliminated
. In the Semi-Final, the four remaining teams are paired up and race a 'first to two points' (best of 3 races) series. The winner from each pair advances to the Final
. In the Final, the winners from each semi-final pair race a 'first to 4 points' (best of 5 races) series to determine the winner of the Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland

NEW ZEALAND, Auckland, 17th March 2010, Louis Vuitton Trophy, Elimination Round 1, TEAMORIGIN vs ALL4ONE, TEAMORIGIN rounds mark 3. - Ian Roman-TEAMORIGIN

TeamOrigin Spotlight : Feature Story Of The Day

The America's Cup Comes To Town : Positive Vibes For Future Of The 34th America's Cup Event
The America's Cup comes to town! Just over a month after BMW Oracle Racing won the 33rd America's Cup Match in Valencia the new Defender brought the America's Cup trophy to Auckland as part of the victory tour but also to symbolically endorse the Louis Vuitton Trophy regattas and the teams that are competing here. This evening a reception was held in Auckland's Maritime Museum where the eight teams competing in the Louis Vuitton Trophy, and specifically their skippers, gathered to see the Cup and talk with James Spithill, the skipper of USA the yacht that won the Cup last month.

BMW ORACLE Racing, a shareholder of the World Sailing Teams Association (WSTA) the organising authority and rights holder of the Louis Vuitton Trophy regattas, will return to competition at the next Louis Vuitton Trophy regatta in Sardinia in May. In parallel to the racing in Auckland the WSTA is in discussions with the Challenger of Record and the Defender about the vision for the 34th America's Cup cycle.

NEW ZEALAND, Auckland, 17th March 2010, Louis Vuitton Trophy, Elimination Round 1, TEAMORIGIN vs ALL4ONE, approaching the leeward gate. - Ian Roman-TEAMORIGIN

NEW ZEALAND, Auckland, 17th March 2010, Louis Vuitton Trophy, Elimination Round 1, TEAMORIGIN vs ALL4ONE, TEAMORIGIN round the top mark. - Ian Roman-TEAMORIGIN

by Leslie Greenhalgh