Sporting Digest: Sailing

A French return to the Premier Division of fully crewed ocean racing was signalled in Paris yesterday when Christophe Augin announced his entry in the 2001/2 Volvo Ocean race. As a single handed yachtsman he is a previous winner of both the Vendee Globe and Around Alone races.

A new, crewed race for Open 60s in the north Atlantic will be announced in Paris today by Sir Chay Blyth. The Open 60's L'Atlantique Challenge is scheduled to start in St Malo on 8 July 2001.

In Ostend, the reigning bronze medallist Iain Percy was leading the European Finn Championship. With four of the nine races sailed in testing, choppy conditions the 23-year-old from Winchester had notched up three seconds and a first.