|
Victory for Team Alvimedica, glory for Abu Dhabi
Ocean Racing |
Release: Volvo Ocean Race ,
Gothenburg, June 22, 2015 |
Team Alvimedica’s skipper Charlie Enright won the final
offshore battle of the Volvo Ocean Race in june 2015, but the overall
glory belonged firmly with his rival from Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, Ian
Walker.
Team
Alvimedica’s skipper Charlie Enright won the final offshore battle of
the Volvo Ocean Race here today, but the overall glory belonged firmly
with his rival from Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, Ian Walker
- Fifth place into Gothenburg enough to confirm 12th edition title for
Emirati boat - Team Alvimedica’s ninth leg victory ensures six out of seven boats are
triumphant in a stage - Team Brunel and Dongfeng Race Team complete overall podium finishers
Team
Alvimedica’s skipper Charlie Enright won the final offshore battle of
the Volvo Ocean Race here today, but the overall trophy belonged firmly
with his rival from Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, Ian Walker.
The Turkish/American boat led the tightly packed fleet home to crowded
docks in the final stopover in Gothenburg, Sweden, to bring to a close
38,739 nautical miles (nm) and nine months of some of the closest racing
ever witnessed in the 41-year-old offshore marathon.
The Team Alvimedica victory underlined, once more, the incredibly close
nature of competition in the first event raced with strictly one-design
Volvo Ocean 65 boats.
Only one team, Team Vestas Wind (Chris Nicholson/AUS), have failed to
win a leg – and they missed five because of a boat rebuild. Behind
Enright, in fifth, Walker’s boat, Azzam, slipped almost quietly into
port, but the mile-wide smiles on all the crews’ faces told their own
story: We are the Champions! It seals one of the greatest global
sporting triumphs for the Gulf region and makes Walker the first British
skipper to win the overall trophy. "I said at the start of the race that
I was confident, but there are 100 ways to lose this race but only one
way to win it. And it just all came together for us perfectly," a
jubilant Walker told reporters on dockside.
Leg 9 was the last and in many ways most exciting of all the stages
since the fleet set out on October 11 from Alicante, Spain, full of
hopes and expectations. Team Alvimedica led the 1,000nm stage, almost
from the start last Tuesday in Lorient, France, but their lead was never
totally secure despite entering the halfway stage in The Hague last
Friday with a 91-minute lead over Dongfeng Race Team (Charles Caudrelier/FRA).
Lighter breezes and a front last night compressed the fleet following
their departure from the Dutch port on Saturday.
The Chinese boat Dongfeng was forced to relinquish their hoped-for
second place in the leg to Team Brunel (Bouwe Bekking/NED), whose finish
secured the runners-up spot in the overall standings.
Despite not being able to hold off Spanish challengers, MAPFRE (Iker
Martínez/ESP), for third position, Charles Caudrelier’s crew still took
the final place on the podium in third place overall - an incredible
result with four Chinese rookie sailors in their ranks.
Fourth place overall, though, will have to be decided in the final act
of the 2014-15 edition, Saturday's (June 27) Inmarsat In-Port Race
Gothenburg, when Team Alvimedica and MAPFRE, tied on 34 points, will
duel to break the deadlock.
Following in behind the champions, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, sixth-placed
Team Vestas Wind had their own cause for celebration in finishing a race
that they looked irrevocably out of, having collided with an Indian
Ocean reef in Leg 2 last November.
Their sponsors, crew and shore team never gave up hope of returning,
however, and the second-placed finish of the blue Danish boat in Leg 8
to Lorient from Lisbon, will remain one of the 12th edition’s most
cherished memories.
Finally, the all-women’s crew of Team SCA (Sam Davies/GBR) completed the
fleet’s arrivals in Gothenburg. As ever, they were competitive and right
on the heels of their male rivals.
They had, however, already made their point in what has been the sole
preserve of male sailing since 2001-02.
Their victory in Lorient in the leg from Lisbon proved that women can be
– and are – competitive in the world's toughest offshore sailing event.
With the huge following that Sam Davies's team attracted and their
legacy of leg-by-leg improvements, we surely will not have to wait
another 12 years for another female crew to take their place in a Volvo
Ocean Race fleet.
Final standings: 1) Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing 24 pts, 2) Team Brunel (Netherlands)
29, 3) Dongfeng Race Team (China) 33, 4=) Team Alvimedica (Turkey/USA)
34, MAPFRE (Spain) 34, 6) Team SCA (Sweden) 51, 7) Team Vestas Wind (Denmark)
60.
|