Peachy Ahoy: First shots fired in the #BattleofBermuda
If you’re an America’s Cup fan, you had to know it was coming.
With Emirates Team New Zealand winning the Louis Vuitton America’s Cup Challenger Playoffs to set up a rematch with ORACLE TEAM USA starting on Saturday, it was just a matter of time before the mind games and banter would begin.
ORACLE TEAM USA skipper Jimmy Spithill, who put on a masterful performance at the press conferences in San Francisco four years ago in midst of an epic comeback win, fired the first salvo – an instagram post with an American Eagle swooping down on a hapless Kiwi.
But Emirates Team New Zealand didn’t take long to fire back. Cyclor and fight control specialist Blair Tuke, who won a gold medal in Rio with helmsman Peter Burling, quickly responded with his own shot of a Kiwi pedaling a bike at speed, with an astonished eagle struggling to keep up. The message was clear – we’re fast and we’re not going to be intimidated.
Both posts carried the #BattleofBermuda hashtag.
In the previous America’s Cup much was made of Spithill’s confidence in the press conferences, even when trailing by a seemingly insurmountable 8-1 score, when he told a questioner: “"I think the question is, imagine if these guys lost from here, what an upset that would be. They’ve almost got it in the bag, so, that’s my motivation.”
That was but one example of what would be a daily dose of Spithill one-liners and zingers, apparently aimed as much at motivating his own team as at destabilizing the opposition. Did he get into the heads of the Kiwis? Did it have an impact?
It’s impossible to tell. But it certainly raised the entertainment level and engaged fans in a way that hadn’t happened in the America’s Cup for years.
The next round starts on Friday, with the opening press conference featuring ORACLE TEAM USA skipper Jimmy Spithill and Emirates Team New Zealand helmsman Peter Burling.
Both will be eager to set their fans up to add a ‘seventh man’ cheerleading element to motivate their teams ahead of the first weekend of racing in the 35th America’s Cup Match presented by Louis Vuitton.
- See more at: https://www.americascup.com/en/news/2678_First-shots-fired-in-the-BattleofBermuda.html#sthash.pKe8c8y3.dpuf
