Latest Volvo Ocean Race news

Sanya, the southernmost city on the golden coast of Hainan Province, China, has won the bid to host the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12. Building on the success of the Qingdao stopover during the 2008-09 event, the resort city of Sanya will be the finish of leg three, which starts from Abu Dhabi.

Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, will become a host port for the 2010-2012 Volvo Ocean Race. A racing team from Abu Dhabi will also take its place on the start line of the race in Alicante, Spain in the autumn of next year.

Following the huge success in Galway when it was the finish of the transatlantic leg of the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09, Ireland, will again feature in the new route for 2011–12. The fleet will race from Lorient in France back to Galway on Ireland’s west coast.

France returns to host the Volvo Ocean Race from Lorient in the summer of 2012. Lorient will be the penultimate stopover in the race, which starts from Alicante, Spain in the autumn of 2011.

The route for the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race is now set and the first port of call will be Cape Town, South Africa, making its eighth appearance as a host.

Media statistics for the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009 show a huge increase over the 2005-2006 event. The new addition of each boat carrying a media crew member has proved to be a big step forward.

The Groupama Insurance Group has confirmed that it will enter the next two editions of the Volvo Ocean Race with its long term French skipper, Franck Cammas, a commitment that will last until 2015.

The Volvo Ocean Race is the only corporate sports event to qualify among the world’s most valuable sports properties.

Italy is back in the world’s premier ocean race for the first time since Brooksfield entered the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1993-94. Italy’s Giovanni Soldini has been named as the skipper of the Italia 70 team, which will race under the Italian flag with a fully Italian crew.

In one of the closest finishes in the race to date, Ericsson 4 held off the recently resurgent PUMA and Green Dragon teams to win Leg 8, and claim their third consecutive leg win and fifth in the race so far. The victory puts Ericsson 4 in an all but unassailable position on the leaderboard.