Four more teams eye Cup
beaten by Team New Zealand, their ambitious plans swung into motion.
‘‘We’ve had feelers out for eight months for funding partners and to be able to put the right people together for the design team. We also need to find the right yacht club and the right location,’’ Buckley told SailWorld.com.
‘‘We need one or two more partners. We believe we have enough backing to get started, but we don’t have all we need. But certainly we do have eight figures committed privately to our group right now.’’
Team New Zealand is holding off confirming all entries until the deadline passes, wanting to
Mike Buckley, unofficial spokesman for Team USA21
respect the privacy of individual teams this early in the Cup cycle.
Cup holders New Zealand, Britain’s Ben Ainslie Racing, Italy’s challenger of record Luna Rossa and the New York Yacht Club will contest Auckland 2021, but there is a need for deeper competition.
Team USA21 like the nationalistic feel returning to the America’s Cup scene and hope to emulate Team New Zealand, the Brits and Italy in joining that theme. They believe they can operate a ‘‘100 per cent’’ American challenge
‘‘New Zealand is a fraction of the size and with a fraction of the resources of the USA and they get all New Zealand behind them,’’ Buckley said.
‘‘It’s definitely feasible to do the same with Team USA.’’ A group of African athletes who vanished during the Commonwealth Games have reappeared in Sydney.
New Zealand boxing gold medallist David Nyika was due to fight Christian Ndzie Tsoye of Cameroon in a quarterfinal bout in the men’s 91kg tournament on the Gold Coast last month, but Tsoye didn’t show up.
Australia’s Daily Telegraph reports that the sportsmen and women who went missing are now consulting with the Refugee Advice and Casework Service in Randwick, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
Up to 19 athletes disappeared during the Games, including one third of Cameroon’s team. The missing athletes included five boxers and three wrestlers from Cameroon, two athletes from Uganda and a Rwandan parapowerlifting coach.
There were also concerns about two Sierra Leone squash players who missed events, but their nation’s authorities insisted neither athlete was missing.
Government authorities in Australia have consistently emphasised none of those missing had breached their visas by leaving the Games village, but all were urged to depart before their visas expired yesterday.