New Zealand thrash BMW Oracle

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VALENCIA, Spain -- Emirates Team New Zealand snatched first place from BMW Oracle to finish top of the rankings at the end of the round robin stages of the Louis Vuitton Cup on Wednesday.

Top spot earned Team New Zealand the honor of choosing which boat they race off against in the semifinals and they elected to face local favorite Desafio Espanol.

Luna Rossa take on Oracle in the other semifinal.

The semis, which get underway on Monday, are the best of nine races between each pair, for a place in the final.

The eventual winner goes on to challenge Swiss defender Alinghi for the America's Cup at the end of June.

"It's always tough when you have the opportunity to choose," Kiwi skipper Dean Barker told a news conference.

"We've had good racing with the Spanish, they're a fast team, sailing well and we're looking forward to racing them in the semis."

The Kiwis were the form boat over the second set of round robins and completed a clean sweep of 10 victories by scorching away to an authoritative win over the American syndicate Oracle.

Huge advantage

Both teams made good starts but Barker's choice to hang right as they split up the first leg gave the Kiwis a huge advantage and they rounded the first mark 54 seconds ahead.

Oracle never recovered and trailed over the finish line by one minute, 34 seconds.

Team New Zealand were top with 38 points, one ahead of Oracle. Luna Rossa were three points off the leaders in third after beating Desafio, who stayed fourth on 29.

Luna Rossa dominated an out-of-sorts Spanish boat, who collected a penalty when their hoisting spinnaker brushed the first windward mark to finish almost two minutes off the pace.

The seven challengers who finished outside the top four head home.

Victory Challenge were fifth with 26 points despite losing by 38 seconds to sixth-placed Italian boat Mascalzone Latino (22), who crossed the finishing line with a specially thrown-up kite that read "Thank you Italy, Thank you Naples".

Popular South African boat Shosholoza held on to seventh spot with 20 points, fending off eighth-placed Areva Challenge (17) by 14 seconds in their last race.

Italian boat +39 Challenge were ninth (12) after beating United Internet Team Germany (5). China Team had a bye and stayed bottom with 3.

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