Sporting Digest: sailing

The San Francisco-based America's Cup skipper Paul Cayard, with his AmericaOne crew, beat Team New Zealand's Dean Barker 3-1 to win the final of the Steinlager Line 7 Cup in Auckland. Barker was also runner-up last year.

Off the coast of New Zealand, Steve Fossett, the American round-the- world balloonist, was at last able to claim a new record, sailing 580 miles in 24 hours in his new 120-foot Gino Morelli-designed catamaran Playstation. It beats by 40 miles the record set in 1994 by the Frenchman Laurent Bourgnon in the 60-foot trimaran Primagaz.