ALINGHI won the America’s Cup to become the first European team to defend sailing’s most prestigious prize.

THE Barmy Army fans of the Lions have secured bases in seven other cities.

Emirates Airline will sponsor the Breeders’ Cup Distaff and the Filly & Mare Turf at Belmont Park on October 29 in a multi-year deal.

British sailor Ben Ainslie was today tipped to become one of the all-time great Olympians.

IRELAND is bidding to host yachting's prestigious America's Cup following the success of the Swiss-based Alinghi off the coast of New Zealand at the weekend.

YACHTING: Alinghi won the America’s Cup with a crushing 5-0 clean sweep of Team New Zealand yesterday completing an “impossible” quest to take sport’s oldest trophy to Europe for the first time.

Swiss challengers Alinghi have become the first European team to win the America’s Cup after whitewashing Team New Zealand 5-0 in the best of-nine series.

A group calling itself “September 11” sent terror threats to the British High Commission and American and Australian embassies in New Zealand warning it had 55lbs of cyanide to use against US interests if Iraq was attacked, police said today.

A LAST-MINUTE strategy switch at the start of yesterday’s third America’s Cup race gave Alinghi of Switzerland the edge they needed to beat defending champion Team New Zealand around the course for a third straight time.

SWISS challenger Alinghi surged from behind to narrowly beat defenders Team New Zealand yesterday in the race for yachting’s America’s Cup, taking a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-nine series.

US YACHT Oracle scored a morale-boosting victory over Swiss rival Alinghi in the fourth race of the Louis Vuitton Cup finals here yesterday.

AMERICA’S Cup holders Team New Zealand stole the limelight from challengers Alinghi and Oracle BMW Racing, when they revealed a radical new hull design at an unveiling ceremony yesterday.

SAN FRANCISCO’S Oracle raced to victory over OneWorld of Seattle yesterday for the right to take on Switzerland’s Alinghi for a place in the America’s Cup next year.

ITALY bade arrivederci to an increasingly bitter America’s Cup in Auckland yesterday as holders Team New Zealand (TNZ) accused its challengers of cheating by copying a revolutionary boat design.

SWITZERLAND’S Alinghi yesterday qualified for the finals of the challenge round of yachting’s America’s Cup by defeating American rival Oracle on the Hauraki Gulf.

YACHTING’S America’s Cup was last night sailing into a new storm as holders Team New Zealand (TNZ) questioned the legal standing of a crucial tactic of the likely challenger.

HEAVY winds and high seas have forced the postponement of racing in the America’s Cup challengers semi-finals, with Swiss syndicate Alinghi just one win away from reaching the final.

AN AMERICA’S CUP jury will meet today to hear a New York Yacht Club request that Seattle’s OneWorld Challenge be expelled from the premier sailing event for breaches of sportsmanship and fair play.

NINE syndicates from six countries will fight for the right to challenge the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, the present holders of the America’s Cup, for the 31st edition of the sailing competition off Auckland.

THEY MAY have been jousting there for the last two months, jostling, sandbagging and sprinting to see whose latest boat has the edge, and whose despite the millions invested in research and development may yet be ‘off the pace’, but the real 2002/3 America’s Cup story starts to unfold in earnest next Tuesday.

IT used to be the sea breezes on distant tree boughs that gave the first clues of impending drama at the America’s Cup, but now the early excitement comes from the competitors’ efforts to peek under their rivals’ skirts.