Origin need to up game in LVT semis

Britain's Team Origin suffered defeat to Italy's Azzurra in the first Louis Vuitton Trophy semi-final on Thursday.

Origin, skippered by three-time Olympic champion Ben Ainslie, made a poor start and trailed Azzurra by a minute and 34 seconds in the best-of-three semi.

The remainder of the day's scheduled sailing in France was postponed until Friday because of a drop in wind.

This includes the second semi-final between Synergy Russia Sailing and favourites Emirates Team New Zealand.

The postponement also affects the knockout round for places five to eight which features BMW Oracle Racing versus TFS-PagesJaunes and Artemis against All4One.

At the end of the day, to win the semis, one team still has to win two races - we just used our 'get out of jail free card' a bit earlier than we had hoped Team Origin general manager Mike Sanderson

"We were hoping to get more racing completed but there just wasn't enough velocity," said principal race officer Peter Reggio.

"The direction was consistent enough from the east, but the strength was between three and five knots. The boats might have been able to sail upwind in that, but they'd never make it downwind in the sloppy seaway."

After having seized the right-hand side of the course early on - favoured due to greater wind strength and direction - Azzurra were able to claim an early lead which they protected well as the winds dropped.

Team Origin general manager Mike Sanderson said: "We felt we were safely clear ahead when we entered the circle but that was not to be their (the umpires') decision and so we trailed into the first mark.

"Azzurra did a lovely job thereafter of protecting their lead to take the win.

"At the end of the day, to win the semis, one team still has to win two races we just used our 'get out of jail free card' a bit earlier than we had hoped."

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