Diego Botin steers Spain to SailGP’s $2M championship against heavyweights Slingsby and Burling
In this photo provided by SailGP, Spain SailGP Team competes on Race Day 2 of the SailGP Season 4 Grand Final in in San Francisco, Sunday, July 14, 2024. (Ricardo Pinto/SailGP via AP)[ASSOCIATED PRESS/Ricardo Pinto]
Spain’s Diego Botin stunned heavyweights Tom Slingsby of Australia and Peter Burling of New Zealand by brilliantly steering Los Gallos to victory in SailGP’s $2 million, winner-take-all Grand Final on San Francisco Bay. Botin’s thrilling victory in the dash across the tops of the waves for sailing’s biggest cash prize snapped Slingsby’s three-season run as champion of tech titan Larry Ellison’s global league and denied Burling a breakthrough victory. Spain qualified for the Grand Final thanks to a mindboggling error by the French in an earlier fleet race that knocked them out of the regatta.
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In this photo provided by SailGP, France SailGP Team helmed by Quentin Delapierre collides with ROCKWOOL Denmark SailGP Team helmed by Nicolai Sehested on Race Day 2 of the SailGP Season 4 Grand Final in San Francisco, Sunday, July 14, 2024. (Ricardo Pinto/SailGP via AP)
Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Ricardo Pinto