Sporting Digest: Sailing

THE leading three maxis and the top five Whitbread 60s were all in sight of each other as the 14-strong Whitbread Round the World Race fleet continued to make gentle progress, beating into light headwinds and averaging seven knots towards the coast of Brazil.

WHITBREAD ROUND THE WORLD RACE Fifth leg (5,475 miles, Punta del Este, Uru, to Fort Lauderdale, Fla, US) Positions (with miles to finish): 1 Yamaha (R Field, NZ/Jap) Whitbread 60 5,064; 2 Tokio (C Dickson, NZ/Jap) W60 5,066; 3 Merit Cup (P Fehlmann, Swit) Maxi 5,069; 4 La Poste (E Tabarly, Fr) Maxi 5,069; 5 NZ Endeavour (G Dalton, NZ) Maxi 5,070; 6 Intrum Justitia (L Smith, Eur) W60 5,071; 7 Winston (B Butterworth, US) W60 5,073; 8 Galicia 93 Pescanova (J de la Gandara, Sp) W60 5,073; 9 Heineken (D Riley, US) W60 5,077; 10 Dolphin & Youth (M Humphries, GB) W60 5,090; 11 Brooksfield (G Maisto, It) W60 5,115; 12 Uruguay Natural (G Vanzini, Uru) Maxi 5,125; 13 Hetman Sahaidnachny (E Platon, Ukr) W60 5,149; 14 Odessa (A Verba, Ukr) W60 5,154.