Extreme Sailing Series™ Act 4 press conference: what they said

The stage is set for an epic four days as Barcelona makes its much-anticipated Extreme Sailing Series™ debut.

Thursday 20th July 2017

The stage is set for an epic four days as Barcelona makes its much-anticipated Extreme Sailing Series™ debut.

Before the eight teams hit the water for the opening day’s action, each skipper was introduced at a packed media conference.

Here’s what they had to say:

Mitch Booth, Team Extreme (ESP): “Firstly it’s great to be racing so close to home – we live just up the coast on the Costa Brava. I have fantastic memories of racing here in the Olympics, and to come back with the Extreme Sailing Series with my sons crewing for me is just amazing.”

Arnaud Psarofaghis, Alinghi (SUI): “We need to push hard because the other teams are. We are leading but we need to keep raising our game if we want to stay on top.”

Rob Bunce, Land Rover BAR Academy (GBR): “This event is very similar to the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup, and the FNOB Impulse boys did very well there, so it’s going to be a great event here in Barcelona.”

Chris Steele, NZ Extreme Sailing Team (NZL): “We’re happy to have Rod Davies [who won silver at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics] involved in our programme. He hasn’t given us any venue-specific tips, but with so many boats on a small race course it’s going to be tight. We’ll aim to stay clear and sail our own race.”

Phil Robertson, Oman Sail (OMA): “We’ve definitely locked in third so the goal is to try to make a couple of skips up. I don’t think a lot has to change – there’s the smallest of differences between first place and last place. We know what we’ve got to do and we’ll be focusing on that.”

Roman Hagara, Red Bull Sailing Team (AUT): “Barcelona is a great venue. At the Olympics in 1992 it was the first time the athlete’s village had been built around a sailing harbour. It was amazing having all the athletes around us. It was my first experience of the Olympics and the only downside was that we got beaten by Mitch!”

Adam Minoprio, SAP Extreme Sailing Team (DEN): “We’re definitely coming here with the goal of winning. We know it’s going to be a tough week but we’ve just got to keep up our consistency.”