1851 was theyear of a yachting race in Great Britain, held on August 22. 14 British ships were racing, and oneschooner was American, called "America." Upon that victory, the competition was named,the trophy was brought back to New York, and the America's Cup was born. Thesecond competition was held in 1870, and then it was held on an irregularschedule, normally every two to four years, but sometimes with a decade or twobetween races. Yesterday thisseason's America's Cup began in Bermuda, where over the next month the"Great Sound" will be filled with racing, involving competitions ofteams of 6 nations. Defending Championsare the United States of America, whose skipper is James Spithill ofAustralia. Most unfortunately, theyachts of yesteryear no longer can take part. When experimental floatingvessels were introduced, a few decades ago, they developed into almostunrecognizable and unsafe versions of a ship. Reason prevailed, though, and dictates came down from on high, so whilethe racing may be thrilling, and still maintain a certain kind of beauty, it isno overtly unsafe. The USA squad sail ina catamaran which can go as fast as 45 knots, with a foil on the back which helps it flyabout the surface of the water. In anycase, only about 7 feet are submerged beneath the water. This should be athrilling month, with beautiful and evocative spectacles which awake man'sprimal yearning for the sea. In today'sround robin races, New Zealand contends with the USA, Great Britain with Japan,Sweden with France, and finally the United States with Great Britain. The best to all the teams in this year'sAmerica's Cup. In England: FA Cup final, Arsenal vs. Chelsea. This year has been a year of ups and down,down, downs for Arsenal, one of England's best known and premier soccer teams. The year when Arsenal’s ever-present streak in the UefaChampions League ends cannot be called fantastic, especially when the otherfive of England’s top six clubs should all advance instead. Sometimes English football is not just aboutwins and losses, though, it is about revenge, and meeting a bitter enemy headon and winning. Arsenal and Chelsea meetin the FA Cup final this evening, and some fans think that a win there could"salvage" the season for the Gunners. Arsenal has won eight of theirlast nine games, losing only to Tottenham somewhere in there, so they finisheda mediocre season strong, and want desperately to go out on top. The season has been so strange, they lost tolesser opponents, put beat both Manchester clubs. Chelsea is in the catbird seat, only havinglost only six of their last 32 matches with Arsenal. Thewinner of this afternoons match is hardly "in the cards," but a winor loss will perhaps cause more ink to be spilled over Arsenal thanChelsea. In Monaco: Grand Prix: The Grand Prix of Monaco will be raced on Sunday and today, as the pastfew days, the streets of Monte Carlo will be shut down to welcome those driverscompeting in the qualifying rounds. Qualifyingis important at the best of times, butin Monte Carlo, a top qualifier is usually the winner on race day. Only once in the past 30 years has a driverwon the race starting lower than third after the qualifiers. Saturday’s session is usually one of thehighlights of the season. The streets ofMonte Carlo are narrow and steep, and drivers push to the limit on a trackwhich has no margin for error, with the barriers so close to the edge of theracecourse. InAustralia: in Aussie Rules Football,Saturday's prime match seems to be that between the Western Bulldogs, winnersof last year's Grand Final, and the St Kilda Saints. Both teams make the Etihad Stadium their homestadium, and both teams have had rough starts this season. Etihad is an indoorstadium, with its own influence on the games. The Bulldogs have a 5-4 start tothis season, and have staggered to the end in their wins. The Saints had won three straight, but loston their home turf to Sydney last week, losing by 50 points. In their last several meetings, they areevenly matched, but the Bulldogs are undefeated in their four games at Etihadthis season. Other AFL action includesMelbourne at the Gold Coast Suns, Richmond at Essendon, and the Adelaide Crowsat Freemantle. -- Posted By Rex to SR at 5/27/2017 12:29:00 AM -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "omnisport" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/omnisport. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
