MAPFRE snatches unlikely win
WELLINGTON: Blair Tuke’s MAPFRE has upset fellow Olympic teammate Peter Burling’s Team Brunel by snatching the eighthleg win in the Volvo Ocean race.
With just 480km to go to the finish in Newport, Rhode Island, MAPFRE was in fifth place.
As the fleet ghosted towards the finish line in extremely light and shifty winds, MAPFRE was among the leading quartet, battling in slow motion with Team Brunel, Dongfeng Race Team and Vestas 11th Hour Racing.
And even when the leaders were just 500m from the finish line, MAPFRE was still trailing Team Brunel, as the pair emerged from the fog within sight of the spectators at the Fort Adams Race Village in Newport.
On approach to the final turning mark,
MAPFRE picked up a zephyr of wind to sneak past Brunel and claim what just moments earlier would have been seen as a very improbable leg win.
The margin after nearly 16 days of racing was just 1min 1sec.
‘‘This is unbelievable,’’ skipper Xabi FernAndez admitted moments after crossing the finish line.
‘‘We were always hoping to come back a little bit but, to be honest, we were not expecting to win this leg, so we’re super happy.’’
Bouwe Bekking’s Team Brunel, which had been lead ing for most of the past week after the equator crossing took a welldeserved second place finish.
‘‘A bit disappointed,’’ Bekking said when asked about the finish.
‘‘But we sailed a very good leg and we can be happy with our performance and how we were going. It take time to get on top of everything but I think the last couple of legs we’ve showed what we stand for.’’
Dongfeng Race Team, which had been ahead of the fleet on the approach to the east coast, suffered the cruellest fate over the final kilometres.
Every break seemed to go against it and, after being in position to claim the leg win, the team had to settle for fourth place, as Vestas 11th Hour Racing stormed past the crew in the final mile of the leg.