Golding regains Global lead

Sailing

After a heavy night battling down the English Channel into a south-westerly breeze gusting to gale force, Mike Golding in Group 4 was still in the lead of the 14-yacht amateur BT Global Challenge yesterday, writes Stuart Alexander.

At one stage, off Jersey, he had been passed by Simon Walker in Toshiba Wave Warrior, but Golding, who led the charge out of the Solent after the start on Sunday, regained the lead. Chris Tibbs in Concert moved up to second, pushing Walker down to third, and Richard Tudor, the bookmakers' favourite, took Nuclear Electric up to fourth after a lacklustre start. Those four, with Paul Bennett fifth in Ocean Rover, were continuing to dispute the lead last night.

The Global Challenger, Tony Bullimore's 60ft monohull, was also heading south to the Azores as he put in his qualifying run for the Vendee Globe singlehanded round-the-world race, starting on 3 November. Britain's Pete Goss has already qualified in Aqua Quorum.