Abu Dhabi make it back-to-back Volvo victories

Resurgent Abu Dhabi clinched their second home victory in two days when they came from behind to win a 106-nautical mile (196-km) sprint in the Volvo Ocean Race on Saturday. The United Arab Emirates team, under pressure after retiring from the first offshore leg and limping home in fifth in the second, breathed new life into their campaign by winning their home in-port race on Friday and followed that up 24 hours later with a blistering success in the race to Sharjah. Abu Dhabi, skippered by twice British Olympic silver medallist Ian Walker, had England cricketers Graeme Swann and Alastair Cook on board as guest spectators for the first section of the race in Abu Dhabi. Key to victory was their speed over the closing stages, as they stormed home doing more than 20 knots to win in six hours 29 minutes 45 seconds. “It wasn’t the best race we ever sailed,” said Walker. “We made a terrible start but we knew we’d be fast on the final leg so our goal was to stay just close enough to the leaders and in the end we did enough.” U.S. team Puma, who were in last place over the inshore course, recovered to claim second. Groupama were third while Telefonica and Camper -- the two overall race leaders -- trailed in fourth and fifth. Telefonica, skippered by world sailor of the year Iker Martinez, still lead the standings with 71 points, followed by Camper on 64. The third leg of the 39,000-nautical mile Volvo Ocean Race has been split into two as part of a raft of measures to avoid piracy. The boats will be loaded on to an armed ship on Sunday and transported to the race’s ‘safe haven’ port in the Indian Ocean. Chinese team Sanya, who are yet to finish a leg, will re-join the race at the port after fixing their rigging. Standings: 1. Telefonica (Spain) 71 2. Camper (Spain/New Zealand) 64 3. Groupama (France) 51 4. Puma (U.S.) 36 5. Abu Dhabi (UAE) 31 6. Sanya (China) 4