Most significant sporting achievements of 2017

Kiwi sailing team inventive, resilient and cool under pressure

New Zealand

Zealand’s stunning 7-1 rout of Oracle Team USA in Bermuda wasn’t just a sporting triumph. It was also triumph of technology and innovation. For that reason the team’s epic feat on the turquoise waters of Bermuda’s Great Sound stands out as the most memorable achievement of the year.

There were many remarkable elements that contributed to Team NZ’s daring 35th America’s Cup campaign, including:

The team’s single-minded determination to bounce back from the horrors of San Francisco.

The revelation Grant Dalton came within 12 hours of shutting the doors of the most enduring syndicate of the America’s Cup. The team were dangerously close to operating while insolvent. Although Dalton worked tirelessly to try and scrape together the cash to pay his staff and contractors, the other teams were already whizzing about in their test boats. In his mind, Team NZ was done. It was only a last minute bail-out from a secret European donor that kept the Kiwi syndicate afloat.

The ability of a team starting so far behind the eight ball to find themselves so far ahead of the development curve when they arrived in Bermuda. Their bold, aggressive design strategy, which was guided by skipper Glenn Ashby’s philosophy “let’s throw the ball out as far as we can, and see how far we get”. To beat the big budgets of some of the other teams, Team NZ had to think big.

The bikes. The radical cyclegrinding set-up was just one of many radical innovations on the Kiwi boat, but it was the most obvious and it was the most out there. As Olympic cyclist turned America’s Cup sailor Simon van Velthooven said “we could have ended up being the punchline”. Speaking of punchlines, van Velthooven’s summer plans have ended up being relayed at various sponsor events. On the flight back to New Zealand, chief operating officer Kevin Shoebridge asked van Velthooven what he planned to do

It was only a last minute bail-out from a secret European donor that kept the Kiwi syndicate afloat.

once the chaos died down. His response: “I’m thinking of doing a learn-to-sail course”. Keeping the bikes a secret. The nerveless performances of America’s Cup rookie helmsman Peter Burling. Whether he was deliberately holding back in the early stages, whether it was his noted capacity for learning and improvement, or a little bit of both, Burling out-thought and out-gunned the aggressive Jimmy Spithill in the start box in the Cup final.

Burling’s ability to do the above all the while looking like he was “Driving Miss Daisy”.

Resilience. When the hi-tech Kiwi boat plunged “down the mine” in the dramatic pitch-pole incident in the challenger semifinals, their Cup hopes, too, looked sunk. It had been mentioned in planning “if we capsize, we’re done”. But when it happened, no one was willing to accept they were done, especially not the crew, who were more banged up and bruised than they were willing to let on.

The super human efforts of Sean Regan and his shore crew who worked around the clock to painstakingly piece the twisted mass of carbon fibre back together and get Aotearoa ready to race the next day. Whether those back in Aotearoa had repaired their shattered nerves was another matter.

Weather gods, who smiled favourably and gave them an extra day to recover.

The devil-may-care attitude of the young crew members such as Burling, Blair Tuke, Andy Maloney and Josh Junior who arrived in Bermuda without the baggage from past America’s Cup campaigns. They weren’t buying into the mind games. And weren’t afraid of losing.

The resolve of some of the more experienced members of the team like Ashby, Ray Davies and Richard Meacham, who had endured the heartbreak of San Francisco and were not about to let the past cast its windwash on the present.

Being able to keep it together mentally during the inevitable Oracle fightback.

The daggerboards that miraculously held together after sustaining structural damage during the challenger final against Artemis.

Becoming the first syndicate to successfully challenge for the America’s Cup twice.

Doing it as one.

(below). Carrington

Kayaking had a wonderful year in 2017, with much of the success built around the continued brilliance of

Lisa Carrington

New Zealand claimed four medals at the world championships in the Czech Republic, a record for this country in the elite event, and Carrington was on the podium for all four.

It continued a renaissance for the sport, which started with Carrington’s surprise gold at the 2011 world championships, followed by her memorable race at the Olympics in London a year later.

Carrington’s success since then — she is unbeaten in the K1 200m in seven years and won two medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics — has inspired a generation of paddlers around her.

They delivered medals in the K2 500m where Caitlin Ryan joined Carrington to take gold, and bronze in the K4 500m crew — where Carrington was alongside Kayla Imrie, Aimee Fisher and Ryan. Carrington won individual gold in the K1 200m and silver in the K2 500m.