GB win Abu Dhabi final to claim first SailGP title

With victory in the three-way grand final in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, Great Britain has won the SailGP title for the first time.

In a winner-takes-all medal race, the British team finished ahead of three-time champions Australia, who were led by driver Dylan Fletcher, while New Zealand came in third place.

Fletcher’s crew, which included two-time Olympic champion Hannah Mills as the on-board strategist, was in the lead but overcame Australia’s “Flying Roos” and New Zealand’s “Black Foils” on the fourth leg.

After leading the team to victory in his first season as a driver, Fletcher, 37, told BBC Sport, “It’s pretty unbelievable.”

“The team’s collective effort is just really impressive. Today, we fired out.

I’m just absolutely buzzing to take the win and defeat the best of the best, and that’s how the SailGP championship has been going.

Following the 14-regatta season, the top three boats in the overall leaderboard were eligible for the grand final.

Ben Ainslie, the CEO of the British Emirates GBR team, received 100 points for the best overall record of the 12 competing teams overall.

The Australians defeated last season’s champions Spain by just five points to clinch their place as the third qualifier, while New Zealand were eight points clear of them.

Mills, who helped guide GB from last place in the final to first over the finish line, used all her experience, including winning Olympic silver at the 2012 Olympics in London and winning gold at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.

The 37-year-old Welsh sailor said, “For us, it was just about staying cool, staying in the race, making the right decisions, waiting for the opportunity.”

We managed to stay cool while obviously putting a lot of stress on board.

The team leader, Ainslie, who will also lead Britain’s bid for the 2027 America’s Cup, believes the debut SailGP title is a good thing for the future.

The 48-year-old proclaimed, “These are the best sailors in the world.”

They will be competing in Naples in the America’s Cup in just over a year. We want to be in the lead, whether it is in the America’s Cup or the Women’s America’s Cup.