Sailing - Bruni relishing 'great opportunity' at America's Cup

We need to use it." Luna Rossa handed Ben Ainslie's British team a 7-1 thrashing in the Prada Cup to book their place in the 36th America's Cup and Bruni knows the Italians have a huge challenge on their hands as they seek to win the oldest international event in sport.

Helmsman Francesco Bruni has called upon his Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli teammates to grab the opportunity to win a first-ever America's Cup when their match against defending champions Team New Zealand begins on Wednesday. The teams meet in Auckland in the first two races of the 13-race match after the Italian team booked their place in the clash with the Kiwis by defeating Team Ineos to win the Prada Cup last month.

"Everything has been fantastic, the whole campaign so far," Bruni said on Shirley Robertson's Sailing Podcast on official America's Cup website. "There's been a lot of work but a lot of rewards as well. The final goal is there, it's just behind the corner and I don't want to lose this opportunity.

"I know everybody on the team is going to think like me. We have to give all we have in work, concentration and we need to finish by saying we have tried everything we had. "It's a great opportunity. We need to use it."

Luna Rossa handed Ben Ainslie's British team a 7-1 thrashing in the Prada Cup to book their place in the 36th America's Cup and Bruni knows the Italians have a huge challenge on their hands as they seek to win the oldest international event in sport. "We have to really work on every department, there is not one that is more important than the other," he said.

"We know that the Kiwis are a very strong team. "They are very good in all the conditions, so we have really focused on improving the speed of the boat, but also spending a lot of hours in the water trying to minimize mistakes in the maneuvers, in the starts.

"The most important one is that we don't have to feel successful just because we won the Prada Cup. "The most important thing was to just give one day off to the team and be back working the next day.

"On that day off there were people working and that's a signal that we want to do more, we're not satisfied just with the Prada Cup. "We really want to use every opportunity to win America's Cup. It's an opportunity and that doesn't come every day."

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