Kiwis back to challenge United States in America's Cup

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New Zealand continued to excel in light-wind sailing and again showed superior speed over the USA boat.

The two-time defending America's Cup champions are foundering badly against hotshot young helmsman Peter Burling and Emirates Team New Zealand, who are threatening to sail - and cycle - away with the oldest trophy in global sports.

Skipper Jimmy Spithill, who is looking to win the America's Cup for the third time before he turns 38, started with an Instagram post of a cartoon of a bald eagle in an American flag motif digging its talons into a surprised kiwi bird, accompanied by the hashtag #battleofbermuda.

“Whats in our favour is we havent got just one lay day, weve got five days until the next weekend, ” Spithill said.

"I think we're going to see one of the best sporting events of the year here over the next two weekends", said Spithill.

The New Zealand boat now needs another eight wins to take The Auld Mug back to the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron in Auckland, where it resided from 1995 until 2003.

New Zealand, which beat Artemis in the challenger final, has fought back formidably since capsizing against the British team in the round-robin phase.

This America's Cup is a revenge match for New Zealand, who lost in 2013 after seeing an 8-1 lead overturned.

"Clearly we need to now put everything back on the table", Spithill said.

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The Kiwis continued their dominant form by winning both races in Bermuda on Sunday, adding to their two victories from race one and two on Saturday.

"We're under no illusions", helsman Peter Burling, 26, said.

Team New Zealand emerged battle-hardened from its challenger final win over Artemis and still had days to fine-tune the boat. "We know if we stand still these guys will be catching us", he said.

Let's end with an old cup saying: "The America's Cup has already been won, we just don't know who it is yet".

Spithill noted that many in Team USA are veterans of the 2013 campaign in San Francisco, when New Zealand held match point at 8-1 against Oracle only to lose 8-9 - falling victim to one of sport's greatest comebacks. The Kiwis used the same foils they did in speeding to two victories on Saturday while the American-backed crew appeared to use two different foils.

“Weve got some good sailing days coming up over these next five days and we will be under 24-hour shifts.

New Zealand's biggest shock so far was to introduce a revolutionary cycling system on their 50-foot (15 metre) catamaran, which allows "cyclors" rather than traditional "grinders" to generate the hydraulic power needed to operate its high-tech "foils" and towering "wing" sail.

"On paper Jimmy Spithill has a lot of skill for that (America's Cup racing) and it's very natural for him", Groupama Team France skipper Franck Cammas told Reuters on Thursday.

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