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Puma Ocean Racing
www.pumaoceanracing.com - www.volvooceanrace.org - Übersicht
December 23, 2008
For images and footage free for editorial use please go to:
http://media.pumaoceanracing.com
PUMA Second into Singapore for Christmas
Podium finish for PUMA team in leg three of Volvo Ocean Race
– PUMA Ocean Racing, skippered by Ken Read (USA)
finished leg three of the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 in second place late
last night (local time). Crossing the finish line at 23:08 local (15:08
GMT) on December 22nd, just 17 minutes after leg winners Telefonica Blue,
the PUMA team experienced an exhausting end to an incredibly intense 1,950
mile leg from India to Singapore. Separated from rivals Ericsson 3 and
Ericsson 4 by just a few metres as they approached the finish line, PUMA
beat the two Swedish boats by a matter of seconds to take second place.
Sticking inshore of the group as they raced along the Malaysian coastline
during the last 24 hours, the PUMA team made some excellent tactical
decisions to see them indextain their position at the front of the pack. To
add to the stress of the tight finish in light winds, the fleet also had
to negotiate hundreds of container ships and fishing boats littering the
Straits of Malacca, not an easy task in the darkness. After motoring in
from the finish line to the race village on Sentosa Island, the team were
met by family on the dock, where they celebrated Watch Captain Sidney
Gavignet’s 40th birthday.
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das glückliche Töchterchen in Singapur
Foto: Rick Tomlinson
Foto: © Sally Collison
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PUMA Ocean Racing skipper Ken Read commented: “Every time I do one of
these legs I come back and say I have never done anything like it before.
It was hard work for ten days straight, with not a moment to spare. We are
all exhausted – none of us can actually remember the last time we slept or
ate or drank, or anything else. It’s just been non-stop for as long as we
can remember...it’s gotten like that. That’s what this is about. All these
boats are so similar in speed, and nobody’s letting up.”
“This leg was an amazing rollercoaster – you would have to just keep
talking yourself out of getting too low when things weren’t going great or
too high when things were going fantastic. It was tough but we knew the
racecourse before we got into this and you just adapt to it. We knew this
is exactly what this leg was going to be, and it lived up to its
expectations. Unbelievable. Hats off to the Telefonica Blue guys, they did
a really nice job. They just snuck through and didn’t look back. So
congratulations to them.”
PUMA’s podium position earns the team seven points, keeping PUMA in third
place overall in the race to date. The team will now take a well-deserved
rest over Christmas, before competing in the Singapore In-Port and Pro-Am
races on the 10th and 11th January, just off the coast of East Coast Park,
Singapore.
The Volvo Ocean Race is made up of ten legs, finishing in June 2009 in St.
Petersburg, Russia.
By joining the race, PUMA has entered a new premium category and is the
only Sportslifestyle company to participate in the Volvo Ocean Race
2008-09. For more information about the race, team and the PUMA Sailing
collections, please visit www.pumaoceanracing.com
For more information on Puma Ocean Racing, please contact:
Bridgid Murphy or Kate Fairclough
PUMA Ocean Racing
Tel: +1 978 996 5155 or +44 7827 277 517
bridgid.murphy@puma.com or kate.fairclough@puma.com
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