Barker 'disgusted' by Alinghi decision to back out of race

9:18 AM Sat 7 Feb 2009 GMT

'Dean Barker (left) is less than impressed with Alinghi’s decision not to compete today.' Richard Gladwell Click Here to view large photo

Watch the video(1:02) Emirates Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker says he is disgusted by the decision of Alinghi to pull out of their race on Saturday afternoon.

Alinghi decided not to race late in the day, leaving Team New Zealand out on the course for hours waiting for the start of their gold fleet race that they eventually started solo to formally complete it.

Barker told ONE Sport's Martin Tasker ' I'm pi**ed off, I'm really disappointed, disgusted...we are here for a good sporting event and I just don't buy their reasoning.'

Alinghi made the decision not to race because they would not have gained a point even if they beat the home team.

As the host, Team New Zealand are racing in the round robins before going straight through to the final but other teams do not gain a point by beating them.

Other teams can lose points through penalties though and both TeamOrigin and BMW Oracle were jointly penalised for a collision on Friday.

Barker's response to this - the reasoning that Alinghi have nothing to gain by sailing but a lot to potentially lose - was strongly refuted.

'They need to look at the spirit of this event...it's about trying to do what is right for yacht racing through turbulent times' Barker said.

The Kiwi helmsman also suggested the decision was an insult to the spectators who had turnd out in large numbers to watch the supposed feature race of the day.

'(Alinghi's) decision not to race is an insult...it's disappointing to the New Zealand public...it's completely disrespectul to us as a team and I'm really pissed off about it' Barker said.

He then told ONE Sport that he would not be discussing it with Alinghi as he had nothing he wanted to say to them.

by ONE News

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