Emirates Team New Zealand have won the Louis Vuitton Cup, taking the fifth race in the best of nine series for a 5-0 whitewash over Italy's Luna Rossa. The Kiwis will now go on to challenge Alinghi for the 32nd America's Cup which starts here on June 23.

With skipper Dean Barker at the helm NZL 92 secured the right to tackle the Swiss defender for sport's oldest prize with a 22 second win over the Italians.

Never in the history of the Louis Vuitton Cup has the final proved so one-sided and the margin of the New Zealand team's superiority augurs well for their upcoming clash with Alinghi.

And they will need all the boost this result brings as they go about trying to redress the balance after Alinghi brushed them aside 5-0 off Auckland in 2003.

Aggressive tactics from both teams in the pre-start resulted in their respective bows crossing the start line together with Luna Rossa, who came in on the starboard side, winning the right where the stronger breeze was predicted.

It was neck and neck early on in the run to the first mark, the lead see-sawing between the pair until Luna Rossa, enjoying their best start of the final, eventually pulling 10m clear.

ITA 94, which received unspecified modifications overnight, tacked first as they fought to prolong their America's Cup dream at least for one more day.

But, as in the first four races, Barker soon had their measure and the Kiwis, maintaining their record of having led around every mark of this final so far, rounded the first turn with a delta of 20secs.

With the breeze struggling to rise above nine knots New Zealand's' weathermen and tacticians were once again reading the conditions better but Luna Rossa, battling for their America's Cup lives, doggedly kept tabs to round mark two the same distance adrift.

Down the third beat Luna Rossa had closed the gap to 30m or just over one boat length with a series of neat tacks under Australian helmsman James Spithill.

But to ITA 94's misfortune they were unable to maintain that pressure and the Kiwis passed the final mark again with a 20s cushion.

From there New Zealand held off ITA 94's spirited last gasp attack to capture the Cup and their America's Cup passport.For the record this was their 27th win from 32 races since the Louis Vuitton began two months ago.

New Zealand are aiming for their third America's Cup crown after capturing the 1995 and 2000 editions.

Emirates Team New Zealand Factfile

Yacht Club: Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron
Country: New Zealand
Sail Numbers: NZL 84, NZL 92
Established: 1993
Team head: Grant Dalton
Skipper/Helmsman: Dean Barker
Designers: ETNZ Design Team
Louis Vuitton performance: Top ranked team after the round robin stage with 17 wins out of 20. Beat Desafio Espanol in the semi-final 5-2. Beat Luna Rossa 5-0 in the final. Won 27 of their 32 races.
America's Cup record: Won in 1995, 2000

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