Sailing: Oracle scores first win but faces uphill series battle

Sometimes it is smart to be conventional and Oracle BMW exacted a high price when OneWorld Challenge tried to be just a little too clever in the first race of the second chance, semi-final repechage of the Louis Vuitton Cup. Having secured an advantage at the start, OneWorld then allowed Oracle to take up position on the left-hand side of the course, a move the men from San Francisco clearly wanted to make, and, out on the right, their Pacific north-west rivals from Seattle then found themselves trailing by 49 seconds going into the top mark for the first time.

OneWorld tried everything to catch up, not least 29 tacks on the second upwind leg and 25 on the third, forcing a brilliant display of defensive sailing from Oracle, and managed to cut the deficit to just 10 seconds going into the final leg. But, in a breeze that had been light and now was dying, OneWorld then went off to a huge lead of 4min 8sec at the finish.

In theory this is a best of seven, but OneWorld has to win five races because of the one-point penalty imposed on them in every round. So, although the scoreline says 1-0 to Oracle, the San Francisco team now needs three more wins to join Alinghi of Switzerland in next month's final.

Louis Vuitton Cup for America's Cup challengers (Hauraki Gulf, Auckland): Semi-finals repechage: Oracle BMW Racing (US) beat OneWorld (US) by 4min, 8sec (Oracle lead best-of-seven series 1, -1)*

*OneWorld are penalised one point from their tally for having boat design secrets from other teams and started the series at -1)