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Bendigo’s Glenn Ashby is an America’s Cup champion. Four years after enduring the biggest disappointment in his distinguished sailing career, Ashby earned redemption when he skippered Team New Zealand to a dominant 7-1 win over Team USA in Bermuda. "It's absolutely been an amazing journey for us as a team and personally that feeling of relief, I guess, right at the moment and immense satisfaction as a fantastic group of people and fantastic team," Ashby said. "We've been able to pull off almost the unimaginable against all odds ... from a few years ago, regrouping, getting over here late, scrambling and still managing to pull it off. It's an absolutely unbelievable feeling." Ashby was the only Australian in the Team NZ crew and the only surviving member of the team which led Team USA 8-1 four years ago, but lost the series 9-8. Ashby and the Kiwis took a major risk by staying in New Zealand to train, while their opponents arrived in Bermuda early, and by replacing traditional shoulder grinders with cycle posts. "We knew, with this format, we had to be extremely innovative and extremely aggressive with our design philosophy," he said. "We all, as a group, agreed and recognised where the bar would eventually get with our sport, and we tried to fast-track that learning process as much as we could. "The cycling system, the wing control system we have and also the foil control system is very very different to what our opponents have been using. "I think, that was cetrtainly a big risk, but we had to risk big to ultimately win the America's Cup.” Ashby’s America’s Cup triumph proudly sits alongside an incredible 16 world championships and an Olympic silver medal. The 39-year-old is one of Bendigo’s greatest sporting products.

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