Olympic sailor from Emsworth praises Portsmouth's support for America's Cup
AN OLYMPIC sailor from Emsworth has told of his pride after the first day of the America's Cup ended in victory for Sir Ben Ainslie.
Peter McCoy, 24, has just returned from a two-week training camp in Rio ahead of this year’s Olympic Games.
He spent the day at the Race Village cheering on Sir Ben and his team, Land Rover BAR, as they romped to victory today in two of the three races.
‘The city has been amazing. The atmosphere has been incredible here,’ he said.
‘Portsmouth is doing a lot to really help to promote the sport.
‘There must be about 25,000 people here. It’s just amazing to see so many people here.’
His comments came after the second grinder challenge finished this afternoon.
The power contest saw sailors from the America’s Cup team pushing themselves to the limit to record the fastest times.
Storming to victory was Land Rover BAR’s Nick Hutton, who clinched a time of 10.24sec.
He was closely followed by Artemis Racing’s Luke Parkinson, who notched up a time of 10.30sec.
Other times were: Guy Endean, Emirates Team New Zealand – 10.37sec; Joey Newton, Oracle Team USA – 10.67sec; Thomas Le Bretton, Groupama Team France; Chris Draper, Softbank Team Japan – 12.41sec.
But Peter, who took part in the challenge afterwards, notched a time better than all the America’s Cup pros. He recorded a blistering 9.95 sec.
Peter added: ‘I’m here trying to defend my title that I won last year.’
Speaking of his Rio 2016, Peter said: ‘We’re all feeling great. We’re all feeling really confident.’