Sailing: Kenwood Cup is scuppered

The last of what used to be a quartet of top-class, international team events has announced it is shutting up shop. The Kenwood Cup, staged in Hawaii, is no more after the electrical group decided to end its sponsorship.

The first to founder were Sydney's Southern Cross Cup, which is now largely an inter-state Australian affair, and the Sardinia Cup. The third was the once-prestigious Admiral's Cup, cancelled in 2001 because of a lack of entries. It will be revived in a much-reduced form next year in Dublin, but entries will be from clubs, not countries, with two-boat teams, not three.

Meanwhile, the Volvo Ocean Race, despite a smaller number of entries, has attracted more funding than ever before in its history and the same is true of the America's Cup challenger series for the Louis Vuitton Cup. The big French events, like the Vendee Globe and The Race are also gaining in profile, while the Olympics have retained their importance.

In the final 24 hours of the sixth leg of the Volvo from Miami to Baltimore, much was going to depend on how the boats coped with a new south-westerly breeze filling in around Cape Fear.

Volvo Ocean Race, Leg 6, Positions (with miles to the finish): 1 News Corp (J Fanstone) 362; 2 illbruck (J Kostecki) 364; 3 Amer Sports One (G Dalton) 365; 4 Assa Abloy (N McDonald) 369; 5= Tyco (K Shoebridge) SEB (G Krantz) 386; 7 djuice (K Frostad) 391; 8 Amer Sports Too (L McDonald) 410.