In the full glare of the world’s media spotlight, in a race sandwiched between the opening two races of the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match, Italy’s Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli beat Britain’s Athena Pathway to win the inaugural Puig Women’s America’s Cup after an impressive demonstration of cool, calm, and collected match-racing of the highest order.

This was a titanic tussle between the two outstanding competitors to emerge from a super-competitive Qualification and Semi-Final series that signaled and signposted the very future of the America’s Cup. The Final was set to be a classic with Athena Pathway coming in with momentum whilst Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli knew that they had inherent speed if they could keep their nerve and deliver when it mattered.

A nervy start from the Italians saw them enter the box late and it was decision time for Athena Pathway on starboard whether to get aggressive or gybe away and lead. The British elected the latter and then set up for their final approach to windward – hoping for the speed advantage that they had enjoyed in previous races.

However, from the very outset, it was Giulia Conti, skipper of Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and starboard helm, who eked out crucial meters off the line, to tack at the left boundary to gain the early control. From there she and her Italian crew – co-helm Margherita Porro, with trimmers Maria Giubilei and Giulia Fava – kept calm despite intense pressure from the British to never relinquish the lead over the next six legs.

Athena Pathway – led by Great Britain’s most decorated female Olympic sailor Hannah Mills, alongside Tash Bryant, and trimmers Saskia Clark and Hannah Diamond – were always a threat as they refused to give up and kept the deltas super tight all the way around the course. At times they closed up, but the Italians covered tenaciously and despite splitting tactics all over the course to get out of phase with their opponent, there were simply no passing lanes for Athena Pathway and no possibilities to capitalise on any leverage.

By the final upwind leg, the Italian team were sailing supremely after Conti had called for calm on the preceding downwind leg where the ride height in the increasing chop briefly got out of kilter and caused the boat to punch-through a wave. With the wind speed at a steady 11 knots, the Italian team could sail conservatively, pick their shifts and headed for home around the final gate with a 19-second lead.

Athena Pathway were anything but done and threw everything they could at the leaders down the final run to the finish line. But a slick gybe at the port layline brought Luna Rossa across the line to secure an eight-second victory and a place in the history books as the first ever winners of the Puig Women’s America’s Cup.

Cue wild scenes of celebration onboard the Italian AC40 and also back ashore as the Italian team celebrated ecstatically the fact that they had added the Puig Women’s America’s Cup to the UniCredit Youth America’s Cup won earlier by the Luna Rossa Youth Team.

To celebrate this landmark moment in Italian sailing the victorious Youth Team, led by skipper Marco Gradoni, jumped aboard to join the celebrations as the Juvé & Camps Cava was sprayed around with abandon.

Later, ashore, Maria Giubilei trimmer aboard Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli said she was struggling to take in the womens’ achievement. “I don’t know how to describe how this feels. I’m super super happy and proud of the team – this is just a wonderful feeling. I’m not sure we really can understand it yet. Maybe in the coming days we will understand properly that this is a really big thing that we have done and how important it is for girls everywhere. I hope this will inspire people to follow their dreams and live the life they want to lead.”

Asked if this is the first step along the way to having female sailors racing aboard AC75s in the future America’s Cups, she answered: “I hope so. I think that would be a good thing – especially because I really want to go on the Luna Rossa boat one day. I think it would be great for women at some point if there was not a race just for us but we were mixed in with all the other sailors.”

Understandably disappointed, but still smiling, Hannah Mills – Skipper of Athena Pathway – came ashore and said: “It’s just tough. We couldn’t quite get back at the Italians. They did a really great job of defending and it really came down to the wire on that last run, but we couldn’t quite get past them.

“I guess bigger-picture-wise, Ben and I set up this programe, Athena Pathway, to try inspire, particularly, young girls coming through the sport of sailing – or ones who might want to try sailing – to showcase that there is much more opportunity coming, whether it’s on the water, racing, or off the water in shoreside roles. We’ve really delivered on that in terms of what we’ve created here, so that for me is everything. I’m so proud of everyone in this team and the wider team for helping us to achieve that.”

In a stunning win – and a notable marker of both present brilliance and future intent – Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli faced down an enormous challenge from Athena Pathway to come out victorious as the very worthy winners of the inaugural Puig Women’s America’s Cup – an achievement that bodes well for the future of Italian sailing.

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After waiting all day, having initially sent the Group A teams out for a 1000 CET start, finally – just after 1630 CET – enough breeze was found to complete a single late afternoon do-or-die race to decide the Group A Qualification Series.

This was followed quickly after by an evening series of four quick-fire races between the top three crews from Groups A and B (the Invited Teams) to decide the inaugural event’s Semi-Final stage, where Britain’s Athena Pathway and Italy’s Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Women’s Team finished on top, tied on 27 points.

These two crews move on to compete head-to-head in the Puig Women’s America’s Cup Match Race Final, which has been scheduled for tomorrow – Saturday October 12 – in between the opening two races of the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup Match.

In the marginal conditions that prevailed for the Group A race, success was dependent on staying airborne, whilst the math around making the podium was something that third placed Alinghi Red Bull Racing and fourth placed Emirates Team New Zealand were keenly aware of.

The Swiss crew made a glamor dream start to round the top gate in the lead ahead of Athena Pathway before going gybe-for-gybe with the British team all the way down the first run – all the time also being chased hard by the Kiwis. Then came drama. Athena Pathway rounded the leeward gate in first place, but just behind Alinghi Red Bull Racing was struggling, as they dropped off their foils on an attempted tack around and opened the door for Emirates Team New Zealand to steal into second.

Agonizingly for the Swiss, they stayed in displacement long enough for both NYYC American Magic and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli to overtake and by the time they recovered, it was too much to come back from and Emirates Team New Zealand had snatched the final qualifying podium position that secured their Semi-Final spot.

The evening clouds were now coming in fast but with the wind filling in to the most it had been all day the Race Committee were set on running four Semi-Final races. They got the first away at 1730 CET with the Group B qualifiers, Swedish Challenge powered by Artemis Technologies, JAJO DutchSail and Sail Team BCN, joining Athena Pathway, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and Emirates Team New Zealand.

What unfolded over the next hour and a half was some of the tightest AC40 racing ever seen. From the outset two teams showed excellent consistency and pace, with Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli and Athena Pathway always looking strong across all four races. That said, the pair did not have it completely all their own way and race wins in the first and fourth races by Sail Team BCN delighted the home fans and kept the Italians and British on their toes.

In the second race, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli squeezed inside Athena Pathway at a crowded top gate to snatch the lead and then never looked back, sailing off to a commanding victory with the British finishing as comfortable runners-up.

Consistency was starting to pay off and in the third race, Athena Pathway started uncontested at the starboard end of the line and sailed away to a dominant race win. Crucially it was Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli who secured second place and these two could only now be challenged on points going into the final race by third-placed Sail Team BCN.

And what a final race it was. Four boats including Athena Pathway and Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli were over at the start, enabling Sail Team BCN and Emirates Team New Zealand to lead up a first windward leg as the wind began to drop as sunset approached. Luna Rossa, after swiftly expunging their OCS penalty, headed far right on the course and came out ahead, whilst Athena Pathway sailed hard to close the gap on the leaders and got up to third at the windward gate.

By the end of the first run, Luna Rossa were still leading with Sail Team BCN pushing them hard. With the wind fading further the Italians came off their foils on the second beat and the Spanish went on to record a brilliant second win of the day. Athena Pathway held their nerve to cross the line in third to secure their Match Race Final spot.

Giulia Conti, Skipper of Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli came ashore shattered but delighted saying: “I’m exhausted but extremely happy. It’s a joy that I’ve never felt before because I can share it with the people that are not just teammates, but also very good friends and who I love deeply and this makes it way beyond my expectations.

“It was hard to stay focused the whole day because we were on the water in the morning from 0915 but we were able to really keep it together, also our coach a really good job in keeping us focused the whole time and we just knew we needed to keep things simple and to keep the boat fast and that’s what we did.”

Looking ahead to tomorrow’s Match Race Final against Athena Pathway, Conti added: “I’m looking forward to the final. I can’t wait to sail against Athena Pathway. I think they did a great job also, and with the project that Hannah Mills has developed I think they really deserve to be in the final. I’ve been racing against Hannah for a very long time in dinghies so it’s great to be sharing this final with her.”

Tash Bryant, port helmswoman on Athena Pathway stepped ashore pleased but very much focused on completing the job saying: “I think we’re pretty excited and obviously it’s a relief to be following in the footsteps of the INEOS Britannia team and we can’t wait to give it our best shot tomorrow. Obviously, we’re super competitive on board so we really want to win the race – with the first one being really special – and we can’t wait to get on the start line.”

Talking about today’s racing and the team’s never-say-die approach, Bryant added: “We’ve been working really hard trying to stay collected, no matter what happens in the racing, especially today when it was going to be unpredictable and we weren’t 100 percent sure what the wind was going to do. We just had to take each race with a clean slate and go out there and just do our best in the moment.

“We’ve been working hard on the resets. If we have a little touchdown or something happens that we didn’t predict we’ve been working hard as a team to just reset as best we can and lock in on the boat in real time. I think today we went out and did ourselves proud because we had some amazing comebacks and came out of the situations that we really didn’t want to be in.”

So, it’s Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli against Athena Pathway in the Puig Women’s America’s Cup Final where these two outstanding teams are sure to serve up a match-racing masterclass with absolutely nothing to separate them on the water.

It’s one of the highlights of this magnificent summer of sailing in Barcelona and as the sun sets on an epic penultimate day of the Puig Women’s America’s Cup this inaugural competition looks set for a stunning climax tomorrow.

Whichever of these two top class teams ultimately lifts the trophy, crafted by the Spanish architect and designer Patricia Urquiola, they will certainly have earned the honor of becoming the first ever winners of the Puig Women’s America’s Cup.

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