Elliott Smith: Sports reporter on Sail GP, the Australian Open, and Auckland FC swinging back into action.

The Black Foil's finished fourth in front of a home crowd in the Sail GP over the weekend. 

Beat out by our rivals across the Tasman, Australia's Tom Slingsby said recovering after a technical scare was what helped them win the maiden final. 

Sports reporter Elliott Smith joins early edition, giving a run down of the weekends sailing, the powerhouses taking on the Australian Open and Auckland FC is back in action. 

LISTEN ABOVE.  

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is time for our weekend sport wrap up, and again,
Smith's sports reporter and the voice of rugby here at Newstalks,
joins me. Good morning, Good morning, SALGP thought Auckland looked fantastic.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
It did. It looked out standing. Everyone got in behind it.
I mean, this is the city of sales. The grand
stand was packed out. The racing, the sailing wasn't too bad.
Sating was pretty good as well. I mean it's so quick,
isn't it. Nine ten minute races. I mean that's shorter
than you know, seven's game. You think about those old
America's Cup races where they lasted for three four hours,
and now we're down to ten minutes sort of mini

(00:31):
races on the water. It's a quick concept. You're in
and out. Look. I thought it was. It looked spectacular
on the Auckland waterfront, and you know, bring it on
more of the same. It sounds like they're negotiations to
lock it away for a few more years too.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
What was fun about it was you had kind of
a different winner each race.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Yeah, it wasn't.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
It wasn't kind of set in stone how how it
was all going to turn out.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
That's right, and some races I think you had on
the first day. Germany didn't shot up for one of
them because they had to sort something out. And when
you've got four races a ninety minute window, you know
you don't have time to a pair of things. Canada
went in there for a bit yesterday, so and Australia.
You know, it kind of went to the best overall
team over you know, the seven also races we had

(01:11):
over the course of the weekend, so there was some
consistency there. But I mean, it's just quick fight. But
if you don't get the start right in those races,
you're pretty much done for Rn't nine minutes isn't a
long a lot of time to crawl back a dodgy start.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
So his only team managed to crawl back quite a
few places, just not quite enough at times. Absolutely, Hey, Ozzie,
Open of courses in full swing.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
It is Djokovic. But a controversy last night. Didn't do
that traditional Oncurd interview at the Aussie Open they do
when Jimmy Curry comes and interviewed the players. And basically
this all seems out to Friday night, when one of
the Aussie broadcast is basically had a crack at the
Serbian fans on are They were chanting at him, and
he decided to give it back to them in spades
and told Djokovic, you know, he's not welcome in Australia.
Blah blah blah. Now Djokovic somewhey got back to say,

(01:52):
somehow got back to him. It's all over social media,
so he's refused to do the on court interviews. But
he was very, very good last night. This is a
big match tomorrow night. I suspect it will be Tuesday
night quarter final him versus Carlos Alcarez. Think of that
in the quarter finals in the Grand Slam Fundland itself.
So that's a huge match. But Djokovic and alcare Is
both winning through last night with a tinger controversy as well,

(02:12):
and down one feast playing tonight the ASP Classic. And
how good's he been number four yesterday?

Speaker 1 (02:18):
And how delightful was he when he when he won.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Just gorgeous, outstanding, And you know he can barely she
just shuffles along the court. He can barely move, but
here he is taking.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
It might move better than you and I as a
professional tennis player, and really quickly. Good to see Auckland
C back and form.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yes, I've been a bit wobbly himn't they but managed
to get that one of the previous leaders in Melbourne City,
you know, three goals in the space about sixteen minutes
in the first spell. Big crowd again Saturday, I was
huge in an Auckland sal GP on one side of
the city. Auckland f C getting a decent old crowd
there and they've got a big, big wig as well
midweek game against Adelaide as well Wednesday night.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
So thank you so much, Elliott, appreciate that. Keen to
hear you what you thought about the cell GP. You're
most welcome to text me on ninety two ninety two.
A few people text me yesterday on the Sunday session
to say that actually they found the graphics and things
on the television coverage quite hard to follow. That it
all just you know, it all happened in such a
small space and it was it was all just a
bit clustered and they weren't sure what was going on.

(03:18):
How did you find it? I haven't watched a lot
of sale GP. This was the opportunity for them to
grab me and get me to come back and watch
more and I Think I will ninety two. Ninety two
is our text number for more from Early Edition with
Ryan Bridge.

Speaker 2 (03:32):
Listen live to news talks it'd be from five am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio