Abu Dhabi secures big ocean triumph
Print Edition
Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing all but closed out the 12th edition of the Volvo Ocean Race yesterday when its third place into Lorient on leg eight left it with an eight-point advantage over its nearest rivals.
Only a serious breach of sailing rules in the final leg incurring a multiple point penalty — even if they finish last — can now prevent the Emirati crew from lifting the trophy at the race’s final port of Gothenburg in the last week of June.
Its British skipper Ian Walker is a twice-Olympic silver medalist who narrowly missed out on Star class gold in the final race of the 2004 Athens Games.
He has led his team brilliantly since setting out in early October last year for a race that covers 38,739 nautical miles and visits 11 ports plus every continent.
His pre-race game plan was simply to finish in a top-three podium finish in each of the nine legs of the race and, with the exception of the seventh when it was fifth, he has carried out that strategy to perfection.
After crossing the line just before dawn in Lorient in Brittany, Walker told reporters that his achievement in fulfilling a lifelong ambition was taking time to sink in.
No British skipper has won the overall trophy in the 41-year history of an event that was first launched as the Whitbread Round the World Race in Portsmouth, England. “When we passed the finish line we all went quiet and asked ourselves ‘is that it?,’” said a still dazed Walker.
“But I can’t thank our team enough. We made a plan one and a half years ago and we just carried out that plan.”
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