• America's Cup

Team Origin scrap America's Cup plans

ESPN staff
October 1, 2010
Ben Ainslie is the skipper of Team Origin © Getty Images
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Three-time Olympic champion Ben Ainslie will not have the chance to complete a dream double after Team Origin announced they would not enter the 2013 America's Cup.

Ainslie, who intends to defend his Olympic Finn crown in Weymouth at the 2012 Olympics, was also doubling up as Team Origin skipper with fellow Olympians Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson employed as tactician and strategist.

But the British team, set up by Sir Keith Mills in 2007, have decided not to challenge after the defender, US team BMW Oracle Racing, announced the format of the 34th staging of the event.

In a statement by the team on Friday, they confirmed the proposed fixed wing catamaran boat, the timetable, rules and costs, was "neither viable commercially, nor an attractive sporting contest".

"After three years of waiting in the wings to enter a British team in the America's Cup I am bitterly disappointed that we will not be competing," Mills said in a statement. "However, the format and timetable decided by the Defender, BMW Oracle, is simply not viable for Team Origin.

"We have assembled an outstanding team, led by Grant Simmer and Ben Ainslie, and I am personally very sorry that they won't now get the chance to race for a British team in the next America's Cup".

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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