Australia avoids ‘biggest choke of all-time’ to win ‘mindblowing’ SailGP championship three-peat

Australia has sealed a “mindblowing” SailGP three-peat, surviving a huge scare in the Grand Final to claim another championship.

Australia has survived a massive scare to win the third season of SailGP in a nailbiting Grand Final in San Francisco, completing an unprecedented championship three-peat.

The Aussies were the two-time defending champions and went into the last event of the season as the favourites to retain their crown as the only team guaranteed a place in the three-boat winner-takes-all Grand Final.

The Australians, led by Tom Slingsby, won three of the five fleet races across the weekend to win the San Francisco event to extend their lead on the overall leaderboard.

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But despite dominating the season, it all came down to a one-off race against New Zealand and Great Britain, on a windy racecourse between the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz.

Australia got off to a flyer in the Grand Final, just reaching the first mark ahead of New Zealand.

Slingsby soon opened up an almost unassailable lead before disaster struck when Australia fell off the foils and their F50 lost speed approaching the last corner as their lead evaporated.

New Zealand nearly stole victory from Australia. Photo: Simon Bruty for SailGP.

But Australia held on to win the Grand Final in San Francisco. Photo: Ricardo Pinto for SailGP.

New Zealand skipper Peter Burling pounced on the slip-up, but Australia recovered to regain enough speed to turn the final mark in front and claim victory by just six seconds.

It was a heart-in-mouth moment for Slingsby, who admitted he thought he had let victory slip at the very last hurdle.

“That was not the plan,” a relieved Slingsby said after cross the finishing line to claim a thrilling win.

“God, I thought we lost it. We had it the whole way. That was pretty crazy. That could have been the biggest choke of all time. What a race.”

Burling said he was “gutted” New Zealand weren’t able to snatch victory from Australia at the death.

The clutch victory seals Australia’s third consecutive SailGP championship — an unprecedented level of dominance in the sailing series likened to ‘Formula One on water’.

“Our run is going to come to an end eventually but we want to extend it as long as we can,” Slingsby said.

The championship victory means the Australian team receives A$1.5m in prize money, plus around A$450,000 for winning the San Francisco event.

Australia celebrate winning a third straight SailGP championship. Photo: Ricardo Pinto for SailGP.

The Aussies celebrate the three-peat in style. Photo: Bob Martin for SailGP.

Australia have now won the San Francisco event three times before going on to win the one-off Grand Final race.

It’s an unrivalled level of consistency and dominance SailGP commentator Stevie Morris called “mindblowing”.

“We’re in the peak of our career and in the best moments,” Slingsby said.

“When I’m retired in the future, I’m going to look back on this and just think this is best time of my life.”

“We know our purple patch, this run that we’re on is going to come to an end.

“We’ve just got to really enjoy this moment because our reign will come to an end and we’re going to be sitting there beating ourselves up saying ‘we used to be so good’.

“We continue to improve. We continue to find ways to beat our competitors. We’re going to go through some dark days ahead. I have no plans on leaving SailGP and I know I’m not going to retire undefeated.”

Defeating two other Olympic sailing gold medallists in Burling and Great Britain’s Ben Ainslie to claim a third SailGP title, Slingsby is now right in the conversation for the greatest sailor of all time.

Is Tom Slingsby the GOAT of sailing? Photo: Ricardo Pinto for SailGP.

But the 38-year-old brushed off any suggestions he is now the undisputed GOAT of sailing.

“I’m never going to say I’m the best sailor of all time,” a humble Slingsby said, praising teammates Jason Waterhouse, Kinley Fowler, Sam Newton, Tash Bryant and Kyle Langford.

“Anything I’ve done in the last 10 years, I’ve had this team behind me. Anytime I’m called the best, it’s the same for everyone behind me. I’ve won barely anything without these people. “For me, Ben Ainslie will always be the greatest. I grew up watching him. When I was 15 years old, I watched him on Sydney Harbour at the Sydney Olympics.

“He match-raced a guy to the gold medal and it was right then and there that I said ‘I want to become a professional sailor and I want to try do what he’s done’.

“He’s such an inspiration to me. To me, it doesn’t really matter what we do from here on in our careers, what Ben’s done in the past, he’ll always be an idol to me.

“Even though I’ve got a couple of wins on him lately, to me he’s always going to be the ‘GOAT’.”

Originally published as Australia avoids ‘biggest choke of all-time’ to win ‘mindblowing’ SailGP championship three-peat