The National’s Sport cover for the Thursday, November 6 issue, featuring Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing after they won the first leg of the 2014/15 Volvo Ocean Race on Wednesday.
After 25 days at sea, Azzam edged out Dongfeng Race Team by just 12 minutes to the port finish line in Cape Town.
"It was really tough, a very long race and really, really close. We were next to each other for most of it," Emirati sailor and ADOR crew member Adil Khalid told The National's Osman Samiuddin.
“It’s quite emotional, which I didn’t think it would be. Those last couple of hours, Dongfeng threw everything at us. We’ve had people ride on our heels for the last 10 days or so,” added Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing skipper Ian Walker.
Wednesday’s scene was a far cry from how the Volvo Ocean Race began for ADOR three years ago, when they broke a mast six hours into the first leg and eventually had to pull out of the leg entirely.
"How sweet, then, it must have been for Walker and Simon Fisher and Adil Khalid and the rest of the Azzam veterans to arrive in Cape Town yesterday – exactly three years after their abortive 2011 effort – at the head of the fleet," wrote Paul Oberjuerge of the feat.
“This victory is far more significant. In a fleet of seven identically prepared Volvo 65 boats, the Abu Dhabi crew showed it was best. If this is a race that will be decided by sailors, rather than builders, Walker’s crew just struck the first blow.”
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