Sailing: Endeavour beats Smith by minutes

GRANT DALTON snatched line honours from Lawrie Smith by less than six minutes at the end of the fourth leg of the Whitbread Round the World Race here in Uruguay yesterday. Dalton's Maxi, New Zealand Endeavour, moved into the overall lead, while Smith's Intrum Justitia, 5min 39sec behind, moved from fifth place to second in the Whitbread 60 class.

Endeavour now has an overall lead of 1hr 56min over Tokio, though Chris Dickson's boat stays ahead of Intrum Justitia in the W60s.

Victory came after two days of close-quarter battling, but Smith complained afterwards that Dalton and the maxis were no more than a nuisance. 'Grant is cruising round on his own,' he said. 'If we had been match racing they would not have been ahead of us.'

Afterwards, Dickson was taken to hospital after falling outside a bar, gashing his head and blacking out. The cause was said to be sitting on a plastic table which collapsed. A crewman of the rival yacht, Yamaha, suffered similarly.

WHITBREAD ROUND THE WORLD RACE Fourth leg (Auckland to Punta del Este, Urug) Finishing times and positions with miles to finish: Maxi class: 1 New Zealand Endeavour 21 days 2hr 26min 13sec; 2 Merit Cup 21:06:45:55; 3 La Poste 21:13:35:14; 4 Uruguay Natural 600 miles. Whitbread 60s: 1 Intrum Justitia 21:02:31:52; 2 Tokio 21:07:29:06; 3 Yamaha 21:07:37:33; 4 Galicia '93 Pescanova 21:10:38:21; 5 Winston 115 miles; 6 Brooksfield 127; 7 Heineken 242; 8 Dolphin and Youth 267; 9 Hetman Sahaidachny 289; 10 Odessa 602.

BT Results Service.