As an absolute beginner in the competition, Luna Rossa today won the Nations Cup’s fifth edition. The Aussie James Spithill collected a straight 2 – 0 against Russell Coutts‘ team, with a fair victory.

Spithill, with his tactician Michele Ivaldi, wins for the second time in a row, having won last year under the colors of the US team One World.

“It’s been a strong emotion to beat a champion like Russell Coutts – said 25 year-old Spithill – to race on identical boats is very stimulating and it’s good for the team, mostly thinking about the next series of racing dates. We’re going to go back to work since tomorrow, because we’re already focused on Valencia”.

During the morning Coutts got to the finals beatin 2-1 the other Kiwis of Emirates Team New Zealand, with Kelvin Harrap at the helm. Having lost the first match yesterday, today he won twice in 2 very hard and spectacutlar matches.

This evening at 6 pm the price giving ceremony will take place at the Generali Point, the main sponsor’s Hospitality Stand. Luna Rossa will receive its price from the hands of Trieste’s Mayor Roberto Di piazza and the local president of the Province, Fabio Scoccimarro.

So the event closes its fifth edition, confirming that it’s one of the most important events in the international sailing world.

Luna Rossa is the first team to get to the final of the fitfh edition of the Nations Cup. At the end of an outstanding and very fierce semifinal (played best of three races) Spithill’s crew finally gained access to tomorrow’s final, against a very competitive Paolo Cian, helmsman of Italian Challenger.

In the second semifinal Russell Coutts surprisingly lost his first race against his fellow newzelanders from the Emirates Team New Zealand. The following match races that will decide the second finalist will start tomorrow at 10,30 am. The final will take place shortly after the end of the semifinals, also best of three matches.

The last matches of the Round Robin have seen Mascalzone Latino, with only 3 points, and Toscana Challenge, 2 victories in all, out of the competition.

It’s been a busy morning here in Trieste because of the unexpected appearance of Patrizio Bertelli, who came here to visit Luna Rossa’s team. He stayed on board next to his young and talented helmsman James Spithill during the races.

Gualtiero Pantani, owner of Toscana Challenge, also came here today. He declared that he’s confident about the possibility of gaining the necessary budget to run in the next America’s Cup.

Russell Coutts shows once again he’s the man no one can beat, going along with the series of consecutive victories. Also today, he’s been the absolute leader of the event, winning the first race with 20 seconds over Luna Rossa, with a long distance the match against Toscana Challenge and, thanks to an impeccable stream of jibes, also the race against Mascalzone Latino, left behind about 15 seconds.

Again, also the forth day of races has been ruled by the lack of wind, which has delayed the program. Only 5 of the 10 matches expected took place. The other 5 necessary for the Round Robin will be raced tomorrow.

In the other 2 matches of the day, Emirates Team New Zealand lost against Mascalzone Latino with a delay of 15 seconds, but the Kiwis won the race against Paolo Cian with a very close struggle.

The ranking list now has Russell Coutts leading, with 8 victories in 8 matches, Luna Rossa in second place with 5 victories on 8 matches, Team New Zealand following with 4 victories on 8 races, Italian Challenger forth with 4 on 9 and Toscana Challenge, automatically out of the semifinale with only one victory on 8 races.

Tomorrow the last five races of the Round Robin will be disputed from 10,30 am, followed by the crossed semifinals, at the best of 3 matches.

Due to poor winds in the third day of the Nations Cup regatta the Yacht Club Adriaco managed to hold only five of the Round Robin regattas.

The New Zealand champion Russell Coutts had two successes in the same number of regattas to the loss of Paolo Cian and his Italian Challenger. They were gripping and fiercely fought regattas in which the Neapolitan helmsman caused problems more than once for the outstanding holder of the America's Cup.

Today saw a double race, with a victory each , also between Toscana Challenge (Roberto Ferrarese) and Mascalzone Latino (Vasco Vascotto at the helm today), while in the contest between Luna Rossa and Emirates Team New Zealand, victory went to the Kiwis who finished the regatta with an advantage of 20 seconds.

The provisional placings show Team Russell Coutts in the lead, still unbeaten with 5 victories in the same number of regattas contested, Luna Rossa follows with five victories out of seven races, Italian Challegner is next with four victories out of eight, Team New Zealand has three victories out of five, Mascalzone Latino has two victories out of five and at the bottom we have Toscan Challenge with only one victory out of six races.

"A win at last", said Roberto Ferrarese at the end of the regattas, "after the bad luck we had against Coutts where we failed to win by only half a stern, and against Spithill (Luna Rossa). We raced very well in the first contest and in this very entertaining event there is room for many races in an evocative setting. Speaking of the future, I had a coversation today with Gualtiero Pantani (Toscana Challenge's owner) who is collecting the necessary finance to enrol for the next America Cup and the prospects are very good."

The last qualification rounds (Round Robin) will begin at midday tomorrow, the semi finals will be held Saturday and the final will be held on Sunday morning.

The round robin continued for the qualification of the semi finals of the Nations Cup. So far 14 regattas have been contested out of the 30 scheduled.

The main protagonist of the morning regattas, without doubt, was Russell Coutts who, with three victories out of three regattas, beat his compatriots of Emirates Team New Zealand with an advantage of 30 seconds. He also beat the Malcalzone Latino team, which was still without Vasco Vascotto but with John Cuttler at the helm and, in the most spectacular regatta of the day, he beat the Toscana Challenge team captained by Roberto Ferrarese in a flying finish with barely a second's lead.

In the Italian derby between Toscana Challenge and Italian Challenger, Paolo Cian's men won: "It was a difficult regatta", said the Neapolitan helmsman, "characterized by a "patchy" wind but we managed to keep our concentration and calm needed to win". Cian's winning streak also worked against Luna Rossa which lost the regatta on the last side by a margin of 5 seconds. In the next race, however, the Australian helmsman, James Spithill, brought the Luna Rossa team to victory against Mascalzone Latino, winning by a large margin.

Thus the provisional placings are as follows: Italian Challenger with four victories and one defeat, Luna Rossa with four victories and one defeat , the Russell Coutts team with three victories out of three regattas, Emirates Team New Zealand with due victories and due defeats, Mascalzone Latino with one victory and four defeats and at the bottom, Toscana Challenge with no vicories out of four regattas raced.

The regattas will resume tomorrow at midday with the match between Luna Rossa and Team Russell Coutts.

Thanks to a westerly, 10 knot wind, today it was possible to hold 8 of the 30 qualification regattas scheduled.

The Luna Rossa crew, lead today by the young talented James Spithill (winner of the 2003 Nations Cup) is at the head of the provisional placings with 3 victories in 3 regattas.

Paolo Cian's Italian Challenger and Emirates Team New Zealand are neck and neck with 2 victories each. Paolo Cian beat the New Zealanders and the Italian Toscana Challenge, lead by Roberto Ferrarese but was beaten by Mascalzone Latino with John Cuttler at the helm.

Emirates Team New Zealand, lead by Kelvin Harrap won their points by beating Toscana Challenge and Mascalzone Latino but were in turn beaten by Luna Rossa and Italian Challenger.

With only one point gained in three regattas Mazcalzone Latino, which has so far only managed to beat Italian Challenger, is waiting for their official helmsman, Vasco Vascotto, who will not be able to arrive from Spain before Thursday. He has just signed a very important agreement with King Carlos and Mascalzone Latino for the America Cup in Valenzcia in 2007.

Toscana Challenge and Team Russell Coutts have yet to show results having won no victories. In fact the latter had to wait out of the water for their helmsman and only managed to see the impressive Giulian coastline at 4.30 this afternoon. Coutts have made no comment regarding their break from from the Swiss team, Alinghi, current holders of the America Cup.

In fact they will be the first to enter the water tomorrow, around midday, against their compatroits, Emirates Team New Zealand. This race was initially scheduled for today but was postponed until tomorrow for technical reasons.