Luna Rossa sign Kirwan as a cyclor for challenge
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli have revealed their power unit for the upcoming America’s Cup, with Kiwi Luca Kirwan signed as one of the team’s cyclors.
The son of former All Black Sir John Kirwan grew up in Italy but took up rowing when he returned to New Zealand in 2012.
He rowed for New Zealand at the under-23 world championships in 2019 and was a national squad reserve for the 2022 World Cup.
Kirwan, whose mother Fiorella is Italian, met with Luna Rossa during the 36th America’s Cup in Auckland, after which he decided to trial for a place in the power group for this year’s regatta in Barcelona.
The America’s Cup has a nationality rule for the 2024 campaign requiring 100 per cent of race crews to be a passport holder of the country the team’s yacht club resides in as at March 19, 2021, or to have been physically present in that country for two of the previous three years before March 18, 2021.
A promotional video released by Luna Rossa announcing the team revealed Kirwan will wear No 14, the same number his father wore for the All Blacks on the right wing.
Kirwan’s sporting background is similar to the majority of the Luna Rossa power unit.
Romano Battisti, Emanuele Liuzzi, Bruno Rosetti, Nicholas Brezzi and Cesare Gabbia are all wellcredentialled rowers. Paolo Simion (cycling), Enrico Voltolini (sailing) and Mattia Camboni (windsurfing) make up the rest of the group.
It’s a route many of the competing teams are taking in their power unit.
Team NZ’s cyclor team welcomed Hamish Bond (rowing, cycling), Dougal Allan (multisport), Louis Crosby (cycling), Cameron Webster (rowing) and Sam Meech (sailing) alongside 2021 power providers Simon van Velthooven, Louis Sinclair, Marcus Hansen and Marius van der Pol.