Team Origin suffer losses in Louis Vuitton Trophy

(GETTY IMAGES)

Even Olympic gold medallists have their bad days and the hugely talented brains trust in Britain's America's Cup squad experienced major frustration losing the two final races in the run to the knockout phase of the Louis Vuitton Trophy.

"The boys are feeling a bit down at the moment," said tactician Iain Percy, "but we feel we can beat any team any day and we have plenty of people on board who can raise team spirits. We've just got to play our game and do what we need to do to win it."

After a day catching up on the schedule – seven races finishing at 19.00 were staged by principal race officer Peter Reggio - Team Origin's pair of losses to Italy's Mascalzone Latino, with Steve Hayles as navigator, and Sweden's Artemis, with the pairing of Paul Cayard and Terry Hutchinson at the back, meant the final round robin tally was three wins and four losses.

This means that Origin, skippered by quadruple Olympic medallist Ben Ainslie, lines up against the Franco-German All4One as the event, raced in matched America's Cup class yachts, takes quarter final mode.

It is taking on the characteristics of a must-win, turning point contest. "We need to regain control of our own destiny," said Origin spokesman Marcus Hutchinson.

No team has been unbeaten in the setting of the pecking order – Emirates Team New Zealand's blemish was losing to a French team, Aleph, which is skippered by Bertrand Pace, who was tactician to TNZ skipper Dean Barker in the final stages of the ,losing match against Switzerland's Alinghi in 2003.

The Latin Rascals topped their patrician rivals Azzura from the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda and, despite the promise shown in Nice last November by Russia's Moscow-based Synergy team, helmed by Karol Jablonski, it carries the lanterne rouge with not a point to its credit.

Alessandra Pandarese discusses the America’s Cup future with Stuart Alexander:

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