Bernie Wilson: Artemis Racing reaches America's Cup challenger finals

QUOTE-UNQUOTE: [Nathan] Outteridge and Team New Zealand skipper Peter Burling know each other well. Outteridge and Iain Jensen, an Artemis crewman, won the gold medal in the 49er class in the 2012 Olympics, with Burling and Blair Tuke, also a Team New Zealand crewman, taking the silver. At Rio last summer, Burling and Tuke won the gold medal with Outteridge and Jensen taking the silver. Outteridge said it's much more than a trans-Tasman showdown between skippers."It's two big, well-supported teams going head to head," he said. "When we got back to the dock today to see the whole team there celebrating moving into the next round, that's when you realize it is a huge team effort and a massive family effort involved as well. It's going to be a really good race the next couple of days."Team New Zealand won both races against Artemis in the round robins. In the first race, Artemis was penalized at the last mark, allowing the Kiwis to win. Race officials later said Artemis shouldn't have been penalized. –The esteemed Bernie Wilson in his daily wrap-up story for the Associated Press, courtesy of the Fresno Bee.

Photo from today's final race in the Challenger Semifinal. Artemis Racing (SWE) beat SoftBank Team Japan (JPN) to win the series 5-3 and advance to the Challenger Finals starting tomorrow against Emirates Team NZ (NZL).