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Fotogalerie Leg 10
Ericsson Racing Team Seals Race Win in Russia
vor Start Leg10
Team Russia kommt in Stockholm an
24.06.09
400 MILES TO THE FINISH
It was like the end of a school term at the skippers' press conference in Stockholm today as the Volvo Ocean Race fleet prepares to tackle Leg 10, a final, short, sprint to the overall finish line in St. Petersburg.
With just 400 miles reindexing in a race around the world that measures over 37,000 nautical miles, and the leaderboard almost entirely decided, the finish line – the real one – is now in sight.
One leaderboard duel does reindex. With a maximum of eight points available to the winner of the leg, PUMA leads Telefonica Blue by 6.5 points in the battle to finish second overall in the race.
The forecast is promising for the start on Thursday afternoon. A light Northeasterly breeze of 8-10 knots is expected. But as the leg progresses, the wind is forecast to ease. It could be a long 400 miles.
“This weather forecast is not perfect for us,” said PUMA skipper Ken Read. “We don’t want it to turn into a light air crap shoot because anything can happen that way. Telefonica can go and win the leg by 100 miles if they want; (but) we just have to beat one boat.”
“I think, realistically, they have sewn it up," countered Telefonica Blue skipper Bouwe Bekking. "But it’s yacht racing and hopefully they sail the wrong way, come last and we come first. There would be a lot written if that happened. We’ll certainly be pushing hard for a win.”
Also making an appearance at the press conference today was Team Russia skipper Stig Westergaard, who brought the Russian boat, Kosatka, into Stockholm last night. They haven't competed since Leg 3 and the team is now engaged in a race against time to get rule compliant ahead of the start.
With Ericsson 4 having mathematically won the Volvo Ocean Race on the leg into Stockholm, the rest of the teams are sailing for pride. And, according to Telefonica Black skipper Fernando Echavarri, that will be motivation enough.
“This is the last chance we have to win a leg and we'll try to do that," he said. "It's more about personal pressure and trying to finish with a leg win, rather than pressure on the overall standing. It's going to be good (weather) conditions for our boats so we'll try to do our best to arrive in St Petersburg in the top position.”
Ericsson 4 skipper Torben Grael agreed it will be a competitive race: “We all owe it to our sponsors to get a good result and we are all very competitive people. A win is important to us.”
There will be full coverage of the start (web tv and audio commentary) and the leg (including a live race blog) at www.volvooceanrace.org http://www.volvooceanrace.org/ and www.volvooceanrace.tv http://www.volvooceanrace.tv/ . The start is scheduled for 12:00 GMT on Thursday, with an ETA in St. Petersburg on Saturday morning.
For media information on the Volvo Ocean Race, please contact:
Lizzie (Green) Ward – Senior Race Press Officer (Race HQ - UK)
Tel: +44 1489 554 832: Mob: +44 7801 185 320
Email: lizzie.ward@VolvoOceanRace.org mailto:lizzie.ward@VolvoOceanRace.org
Full press information can be read and downloaded from: http://press.volvooceanrace.org http://press.volvooceanrace.org/
Visit www.volvooceanrace.org http://www.volvooceanrace.org for all the latest news!
28.06.2009 - PUMA beendet sein erstes Volvo Ocean Race als zweiter Sieger
27.06.2009 - TELEFÓNICA BLUE VOLVO OCEAN RACE WRAP UP
27.06.2009 - PUMA finish second overall in Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09
27.06.2009 - FIRST LEG WIN FOR TELEFÓNICA BLACK IN THRILLING VOLVO OCEAN RACE FINALE
26.06.2009 - COURSE LENGTHENED FOR VOLVO FINALE
25.06.2009 - PUMA lead fleet out of Stockholm in VOR finale
25.06.2009 - PUMA Leads As Volvo Fleet heads To Russia
24.06.2009 - 400 MILES TO THE FINISH
23.06.2009 - Crew List Leg Ten: Stockholm – St Petersburg
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