Sailing: Standbridge to keep fighting

Paul Standbridge fired off a defiant message from Toshiba as EF Language became the first Whitbread Round the World boat to round the infamous Cape Horn yesterday.

Standbridge, the English skipper of the American entry, praised the example being set by Paul Cayard and EF, but added that third-placed Toshiba "will never give up".

Cayard and his crew have a 205-mile lead over Toshiba and are 179 miles ahead of the second-placed Swedish Match, who was expected to pass the Horn early this morning, 16 days after leaving New Zealand on the arduous 6,670-mile fifth leg to Brazil.

For Cayard, leaving the treacherous southern ocean behind will have come as a relief. "Our batteries are full and we are ready for the next stage," he said. However, the American was expecting his pursuers to catch up as EF hits lighter winds sailing up the coast of Argentina.

Lawrie Smith reported that his damaged Silk Cut was looking "increasingly like a POW camp, with ingenious games being made from odds and ends". Smith is expected to put into Ushuaia, at the tip of the Horn, for repairs.

WHITBREAD ROUND THE WORLD RACE (fifth leg, 6,670 miles, Auckland, NZ, to Sao Sebastiao, Bra): 1 EF Language (Swe) P Cayard 2,077 miles to finish; 2 Swedish Match (Swe) G Krantz 179 miles behind; 3 Toshiba (US) P Standbridge +205; 4 Merit Cup (Monaco) G Dalton +230; 5 Innovation Kvaerner (Nor) K Frostad +231; 6 Brunel Sunergy (Neth) R Heiner +366; 7 Chessie Racing (US) D Smith +397; 8 Silk Cut (GB) L Smith +991; 9 EF Education (Swe) C Guillou +1,446.