Feb 15 (Reuters) - Australia's Bonds Flying Roos successfully defended their Auckland SailGP title on Sunday to climb to the top of the leaderboard after two events.
Led by Tom Slingsby, the Australian team overtook reigning champions Emirates Great Britain and Spain's Los Gallos mid-race amid challenging weather conditions and held on to the lead to claim the win.
The Emirates GBR team overtook Los Gallos just before the final mark of the race to sit second on the overall leaderboard, while the Spanish team scored their first points of the season after having missed the opener in Perth with boat damage.
SailGP debuted a split-fleet format on Sunday to reduce congestion on tight race courses, after a high-speed collision between New Zealand's Black Foils and DS Team France led to both teams being unable to continue and racing abandoned on the opening day.
Two athletes - the Black Foils’ grinder Louis Sinclair and DS Team France’s strategist Manon Audinet - were hospitalised in a stable condition.
SailGP is an international competition featuring high-speed races in identical F50 foiling catamarans capable of speeds exceeding 100 kph (60 mph).
The league pits national teams against each other in a series of regattas held at iconic locations worldwide.
(Reporting by Karan Prashant Saxena in Bengaluru; Editing by Michael Perry)
