‘What a 24 hours!’: Australia’s four-peat quest dashed as Spain win $2.9m Grand Final

Spain have capped a stunning day of sporting triumph with a third major trophy, this time at the expense of Australia.

Spain pulled off a stunner to win the SailGP Grand Final.

Spain have capped a stunning day of sporting triumph, winning the SailGP season four championship in a huge upset in the grand final.

Heading into the last event of the season in San Francisco, New Zealand and Australia were guaranteed a spot in the winner takes all, three-boat final.

Watch SailGP FREE & LIVE on Kayo Freebies. New to Kayo? Start Your Free Trial Today >

Spain did enough in the fleet races to secure the all important third position on the overall leaderboard to qualify for the one-off grand final race.

The Spaniards were heavy underdogs, given New Zealand were the form team all season with five event wins and Australia had won the first three SailGP seasons and had won every event in San Francisco.

But Spain’s skipper Diego Botin nailed the start and his boat reached Mark 1 first, giving his crew the upper hand as the Aussies and the Kiwis were forced to gamble to catch up.

The Australians were in a decent position just behind Spain when disaster struck. The board on Australia’s boat locked as they tried to turn, meaning they lost speed and fell off the foils as Spain sailed off into the distance.

It continued a worrying trend of technical issues that plagued the Australians in the final few events of the season.

“It was pretty obvious we were the fastest team today but it’s a winner-takes-all final race. (Spain) made the final and they performed in the last race, so hats off to them.

“It was a shock to everyone. It shows how unpredictable sport is. You can’t take anything for granted. If you were a betting person you were taking us or New Zealand.”

Slingsby said: “It was a normal tack, but somehow the board came off the lock. We’ve done thousands of tacks, this week we’ve probably done hundreds, and it hasn’t happened at all and today it happened in the final two million dollar race. What do you do? It’s unlucky.

“Honestly, the team sailed the best we’ve sailed, almost ever, today. Even when we were behind, we said ‘let’s keep it chill here, we’re going to catch them, they can’t stop us, no matter what they do they aren’t going to stop us, we’re going by’ and we had that mentality the whole race, even when we were behind.

“We had more speed into the tack and in my opinion, we were going around them, so I’m so proud of this team and the way they sailed. I’m honoured to be part of it all.”

New Zealand, Australia and Spain battle it out in the SailGP Grand Final. Photo: Jed Jacobsohn for SailGP.

It wasn’t to be for the Aussies, who had technical issues. Photo: Ricardo Pinto for SailGP.

The Aussies eventually managed to recover and find some speed but it was too late, as Spain crossed the finish line a few boat lengths ahead of the Aussies, with New Zealand finishing third.

Australia‘s team had a fairly tumultuous fourth season in SailGP, with their only event win coming in Sydney before a harsh penalty points call in New Zealand nearly derailed their campaign.

Spain took home SailGP’s lucrative A$2.9 million winner’s prize for the stand-alone grand final race, sparking boisterous celebrates on the water as the realisation of the victory hit home.

It was a fairly massive upset given Australia and New Zealand have been by far the most dominant teams in SailGP’s history.

Earlier this season, Slingsby declared “some of the younger generation haven’t stepped up to the plate as much as they should have” in a dig at the likes of Spain’s Botin, France’s Quentin Delapierre.

🇪🇸 Naaah, no creo, ¿no? 🤔 🇪🇸🏆🏆🏆🇪🇸
Dale a RT si crees que este finde CAE TRIPLETE ☘️#SanFranciscoSGP#SailGPGrandFinal#SailGP#SailGPESP#VamosGallos#PoweredByNaturepic.twitter.com/6tAF2an71l

— Spain SailGP Team (@SailGPESP) July 13, 2024

Won't the sangria be flowing today!
Spain beats England in @EURO2024
Carlos Alcaraz wins @Wimbledon
Now Spain takes out @SailGP Championship
What a 24 hours that is!

— Adam Hawse (@AdamHawse) July 15, 2024

What a sporting day for Spain 🇪🇸@Wimbledon + @EURO2024 + @SailGP
Amazing

— Luc Joëssel (@ljoessel) July 14, 2024

But when it mattered most, Botin took down SailGP’s top dogs to seal banner day of sporting glory for his country.

Carlos Alcaraz blitzed Novak Djokovic in straight sets in the Wimbledon final to claim his fourth grand slam title, before Spain defeated England 2-1 in the Euros final to become the first nation to win the tournament four times.

Vamos Spanish sport fans, enjoy a cerveza or two after a day to remember.

SailGP Season 4 - Final Championship Leaderboard

1) Spain

2) Australia

3) New Zealand

4) ROCKWOOL Denmark

5) Emirates Great Britain

6) Canada

7) France

8) United States

9) Germany

10) Switzerland

Originally published as ‘What a 24 hours!’: Australia’s four-peat quest dashed as Spain win $2.9m Grand Final