The Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing team’s shore crew prepare Azzam to go back in the water at Cape Town as they plan the route to Abu Dhabi. Ian Roman / ADOR
The Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing team’s shore crew prepare Azzam to go back in the water at Cape Town as they plan the route to Abu Dhabi. Ian Roman / ADOR

Azzam crew focus on task at hand before Abu Dhabi leg homecoming



The organisers of the Volvo Ocean Race (VOR) are happy to sell the event as an extreme endeavour, which it is, given the distances and conditions on board.

But the key to success, even in extreme arenas, is balance and that is what Ian Walker and his men are seeking as they embark on a long, drawn out ­homecoming.

Walker and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing’s Azzam set off from Cape Town on Wednesday at 8pm (UAE time) in windy conditions but flat seas, the start of an arduous, long and potentially volatile second leg.

Between 22 and 28 days later, they will reach Abu Dhabi, the home of Azzam.

There is pressure already from being the winners of the first leg, and winners, too, of the in-port race in Cape Town.

They had been among the favourites pre-race and now there is a target on their backs.

This leg has the added pressures of it being, virtually, a home leg. This is where that balance will be necessary.

They set out with the feeling that this is the leg above all in which they must do well, while, in a professional sporting sense, they must consider it as just another leg. It will not be easy.

“It makes a difference,” Walker said. “If you were to say which leg of the race you most want to win, it’d be this one, because you want to repay all the support in your home port. So you want to do well.

“Does that change what you do every day? Probably not. We’re not going to get on the boat thinking, ‘we got to win this, we got to win this, we got to win this’ because the net result will be that you lose.

“It sounds very boring but, like all sportsmen, you just concentrate on the little things and chip away and hopefully, near the end, we’ll be close enough to strike out with the leaders.

“I’m not going to pretend it’s not important to us. I’m not going to pretend I’m not looking forward to getting there. It’s going to be great, but we can only do our best.”

It is not as if this leg will not be hard enough as it is.

Yesterday, race organisers said the fleet is likely to run into storms when they sail past Mauritius in the south Indian Ocean.

“We have just started the tropical cyclone season in the south Indian Ocean and it seems like we will have plenty of cyclones for this leg,” said Gonzalo Infante, the race meteorologist.

That could have a knock-on effect on the exclusion zones for the leg, in place to nullify the threat of piracy that, in the last race, so disrupted the 6,125-nautical-mile course.

A cyclone on one side and an exclusion zone on the other, as Team Alvimedica skipper Charlie Enright put it, was like being between “a rock and a hard place”.

The most significant factor could be that the leg is uncharted. It was divided into two parts three years ago, which was the first time a VOR fleet made their way into the Arabian Gulf, and the boats only traversed one part, being transported the rest of the way. So no one has sailed this course in its entirety.

As Libby Greenhalgh, the navigator for the all-female boat Team SCA pointed out, that element of the unknown further levels an already levelled playing field by rendering previous knowledge and experience of the stretch redundant.

“There is a big part of that leg that is unknown, that nobody’s done,” she said. “In terms of overall experience, of the other boats compared to us, it levels it more for us. Nobody has done that last bit.”

The uncertainty is why Bouwe Bekking, the veteran Dutch skipper of Team Brunel, is wary of what is coming and not looking forward to it particularly.

Team Brunel finished third in the first leg and Bekking is only too aware of the potential swings of this second leg.

“Everything can happen in the next leg, that’s what I said to the guys in the briefing this morning,” he said.

“ ‘Guys, don’t be surprised if all of a sudden you lose 100 miles. The bungee effect will come in again, so just chin up and go and get them back’. That will happen a few times.”

Maybe in this picture of volatility, a little familiarity might come in handy. The Azzam crew at least know their way around waters near Abu Dhabi, having trained there for six months before the last race. But that was sailing, not competitive racing, and that is only the last stretch of a long leg. It is home, but it is a long way away.

“First of all you’ve got to get there,” Walker said. “It’s the last 300 miles – there’s 6,000 or so before we get there.

“There’s a lot of water before then – big doldrums, possibility of tropical cyclones, exclusion zones, lots of upwind sailing, potentially.

“I’ll just be happy to get within range and even happier when we get there.”

Waiting “there”, Walker promised, as a reward for the hardships tolerated by the seven boats, will be “a fantastic welcome for everybody”.

osamiuddin@thenational.ae

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Day 1, Dubai Test: At a glance

Moment of the day Sadeera Samarawickrama set pulses racing with his strokeplay on his introduction to Test cricket. It reached a feverish peak when he stepped down the wicket and launched Yasir Shah, who many regard as the world’s leading spinner, back over his head for six. No matter that he was out soon after: it felt as though the future had arrived.

Stat of the day - 5 The last time Sri Lanka played a Test in Dubai – they won here in 2013 – they had four players in their XI who were known as wicketkeepers. This time they have gone one better. Each of Dinesh Chandimal, Kaushal Silva, Samarawickrama, Kusal Mendis, and Niroshan Dickwella – the nominated gloveman here – can keep wicket.

The verdict Sri Lanka want to make history by becoming the first team to beat Pakistan in a full Test series in the UAE. They could not have made a better start, first by winning the toss, then by scoring freely on an easy-paced pitch. The fact Yasir Shah found some turn on Day 1, too, will have interested their own spin bowlers.

WISH
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SERIE A FIXTURES

Saturday (UAE kick-off times)

Atalanta v Juventus (6pm)

AC Milan v Napoli (9pm)

Torino v Inter Milan (11.45pm)

Sunday

Bologna v Parma (3.30pm)

Sassuolo v Lazio (6pm)

Roma v Brescia (6pm)

Verona v Fiorentina (6pm)

Sampdoria v Udinese (9pm)

Lecce v Cagliari (11.45pm)

Monday

SPAL v Genoa (11.45pm)

US tops drug cost charts

The study of 13 essential drugs showed costs in the United States were about 300 per cent higher than the global average, followed by Germany at 126 per cent and 122 per cent in the UAE.

Thailand, Kenya and Malaysia were rated as nations with the lowest costs, about 90 per cent cheaper.

In the case of insulin, diabetic patients in the US paid five and a half times the global average, while in the UAE the costs are about 50 per cent higher than the median price of branded and generic drugs.

Some of the costliest drugs worldwide include Lipitor for high cholesterol. 

The study’s price index placed the US at an exorbitant 2,170 per cent higher for Lipitor than the average global price and the UAE at the eighth spot globally with costs 252 per cent higher.

High blood pressure medication Zestril was also more than 2,680 per cent higher in the US and the UAE price was 187 per cent higher than the global price.

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German intelligence warnings
  • 2002: "Hezbollah supporters feared becoming a target of security services because of the effects of [9/11] ... discussions on Hezbollah policy moved from mosques into smaller circles in private homes." Supporters in Germany: 800
  • 2013: "Financial and logistical support from Germany for Hezbollah in Lebanon supports the armed struggle against Israel ... Hezbollah supporters in Germany hold back from actions that would gain publicity." Supporters in Germany: 950
  • 2023: "It must be reckoned with that Hezbollah will continue to plan terrorist actions outside the Middle East against Israel or Israeli interests." Supporters in Germany: 1,250 

Source: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution

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Dubai Bling season three

Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed 

Rating: 1/5

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Salah in numbers

€39 million: Liverpool agreed a fee, including add-ons, in the region of 39m (nearly Dh176m) to sign Salah from Roma last year. The exchange rate at the time meant that cost the Reds £34.3m - a bargain given his performances since.

13: The 25-year-old player was not a complete stranger to the Premier League when he arrived at Liverpool this summer. However, during his previous stint at Chelsea, he made just 13 Premier League appearances, seven of which were off the bench, and scored only twice.

57: It was in the 57th minute of his Liverpool bow when Salah opened his account for the Reds in the 3-3 draw with Watford back in August. The Egyptian prodded the ball over the line from close range after latching onto Roberto Firmino's attempted lob.

7: Salah's best scoring streak of the season occurred between an FA Cup tie against West Brom on January 27 and a Premier League win over Newcastle on March 3. He scored for seven games running in all competitions and struck twice against Tottenham.

3: This season Salah became the first player in Premier League history to win the player of the month award three times during a term. He was voted as the division's best player in November, February and March.

40: Salah joined Roger Hunt and Ian Rush as the only players in Liverpool's history to have scored 40 times in a single season when he headed home against Bournemouth at Anfield earlier this month.

30: The goal against Bournemouth ensured the Egyptian achieved another milestone in becoming the first African player to score 30 times across one Premier League campaign.

8: As well as his fine form in England, Salah has also scored eight times in the tournament phase of this season's Champions League. Only Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo, with 15 to his credit, has found the net more often in the group stages and knockout rounds of Europe's premier club competition.

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Director: Kangana Ranaut

Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry 

Rating: 2/5

The specs: 2018 Mercedes-Benz E 300 Cabriolet

Price, base / as tested: Dh275,250 / Dh328,465

Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder

Power: 245hp @ 5,500rpm

Torque: 370Nm @ 1,300rpm

Transmission: Nine-speed automatic

Fuel consumption, combined: 7.0L / 100km

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Springtime in a Broken Mirror,
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