Sailing: Kostecki limps on as Briton closes in

Battling it out every inch of the way to the line, Neal McDonald was looking for a second leg win and John Kostecki a fourth over the final tricky miles of the fifth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race yesterday.

It was a blown spinnaker on Kevin Shoebridge's Tyco which allowed McDonald's Assa Abloy to shake off what had been a week-long battle for second place, and it was a blown spinnaker on Kostecki's illbruck which allowed the Swedish challenger to make its final hours strike. A dying evening breeze could play a crucial role.

Only these two boats have won any leg of the race so far, three of them going to illbruck, the fourth to Assa when winning the Sydney to Hobart Race and the third leg of the race to Auckland, of which it was part.

All of their rivals consider that Assa has a speed edge, be it very slight, and there was bitter disappointment on board, when they slumped from second to fifth on the first leg from Southampton to Cape Town. That culminated with the sacking of Roy Heiner as skipper, now with the Oracle America's Cup team, and his replacement by Neal McDonald.

Further back, his wife Lisa could blame major problems with the generator and water maker for disrupting the all-woman crew's efforts on Amer Sports Too to stay ahead of Knut Frostad's djuice, determined not to be last into what had been their winter training port. And Amer's brothers in arms were equally disconsolate at seeing Jez Fanstone not only widen the gap ahead of them on News Corp, but put in a late bid for fourth.

Holding that place, Gunnar Krantz still faces the threat of protest after his SEB, sporting a badly crunched bow, hit and damaged illbruck on the first night of the leg.

Behind the battle at the front of the fleet, Grant Dalton's Amer Sports One lost most of her navigational equipment when hit by lightning and suffered a further setback when she became trapped under a windless black cloud.

VOLVO OCEAN RACE Fifth leg (4,450 nautical miles, Rio de Janeiro to Miami) Positions (at 8.0pm GMT): 1 illbruck (J Kostecki) 56nm to finish; 2 Assa Abloy (N McDonald) 57; 3 Tyco (K Shoebridge) 68; 4 SEB (G Krantz)103; 5 News Corp (J Fanstone) 107; 6 Amer Sports One (G Dalton) 121; 7 djuice (K Frostad) 247; 8 Amer Sports Too (L McDonald) 248.