SailGP: Kyle Langford lands second major series victory

Langford was a wing trimmer aboard Team Australia, who claimed the deciding SailGP championship race in Marseille, France, on Sunday night (AEST).

Tom Slingsby's crew overcame an error at the start of the race to pass Team Japan, which was skippered by Lake Macquarie's Olympic champion Nathan Outteridge, approaching the penultimate mark on the Rade Nord racecourse. Slingsby had steered his foiling F50 catamaran into the starting box a few seconds early, drawing a penalty and forcing him to start just behind Team Japan.

Outteridge tried to pinch off his countrymen approaching the fourth gate but Slingsby sailed just clear and rounded onto the final leg ahead of Team Japan as it lost speed.

Team Australia, who had won three out of the four previous events, clinched one of the biggest paydays in sailing history by 14 seconds and began a wild celebration, including drinking champagne out of the trophy.

It was the second major series victory for 30-year-old Langford, who was part of Oracle Team USA's remarkable comeback win in the 2013 America's Cup. He was also third with Team Brunel in the Volvo Ocean Race in 2018.

"It's the first series where an entire season of work comes down to one race and we were fighting for every centimetre on the race course today," Langford said.

"To be able to come out on top is such an awesome feeling.

"I said we were the team to beat at the beginning of the season and we proved that today."

Slingsby said: "I like to think that Australia has some of the best sailors in the world; to be able to cement our country as the champions in the first inaugural season SailGP season is a huge honour.

"Throughout the race we were behind after we received a penalty at the pre-start, but we kept fighting as only Aussies can and when we got the opportunity to overtake Japan we took it and sailed away for the win.

"We have worked hard all year. I'm proud to be Australian, a part of this team and I feel we got the result we deserved."

Olympic gold medallist Slingsby said he would split the prize money among his team. The all-Australian crew also included Olympic swimmer and former ironman Ky Hurst.

"It's a huge effort from everyone and I can say with confidence that we wouldn't have been standing on that podium today without the support of our shore crew and other team members."

Slingsby's crew will next start preparing for the second season of SailGP, which begins in Sydney Harbour on February 28-29 next year.