Sailing: No front-runner for America’s Cup location

THE SWISS organisers of the next America’s Cup revealed yesterday a clear favourite had still not emerged among the four south European ports vying to host the event in 2007.

The decision will be made this weekend.

“The decision still has not been made,” Michel Bonnefous, head of AC Management, said after eight months of painstaking examination of the ports.

The Portuguese capital Lisbon, the French port of Marseilles, Naples in Italy and the Spanish city of Valencia are in the final run-off to host yachting’s most prestigious regatta.

The winner is due to be announced by the Swiss defenders in Geneva on November 26.

Ernesto Bertarelli, owner of the 2003 Cup winners Alinghi, and the head of the Geneva Nautical Society, Pierre-Yves Firmenich, will decide on the location with Bonnefous over the weekend.

“It’s clear that it’s difficult because the four cities have enormous qualities and especially their own specific characteristics, and we have to make a choice within two days,” Bonnefous said.

He added that wind conditions were among the top criteria which had come into play.