Austria's Andreas Hanakamp brought Team Russia's Kosatka safely into Cape Town today at 15:29 GMT (17:29 local time) to finish sixth in leg one of the Volvo Ocean Race after 23 days 03 hours 14 minutes 00 seconds at sea (23:03:14:00).

A relieved Andreas Hanakamp said, "It has been an intense leg with very close racing, I've never sailed in a race where the fleet was so close and fighting so hard. It exceeded all our expectations. All the boats sailed well and everybody got the position they deserved. We believed we would get Telefónica Blue in the end, but they just beat us."

Wouter Verbraak added, "Andreas and I were more on deck than down below in the tough conditions. When we had 31 knots, it was tough for everybody and we were just holding on."

This team, backed by St Petersburg businessman, Oleg Zherebtov, is the first Russian entry in the race since 19:93. It is Andreas Hanakamp's first stab at a Volvo Ocean Race, but flanking him in the afterguard, he has two Volvo veterans as watch captains: Guillermo Altadill / ESP and Stig Westergaard / DEN, as well as and Wouter Verbraak / NED as navigator. In the crew, he has Mike Joubert, who is on his fourth race.

Leg one has been a big test and the crew will undoubtedly be disappointed with their finishing result. They suffered a problem with the seals around the canting keel that separate the sea from the inside of the boat and although they had thought the problem had been solved before the start, by day three it was clear that it had not and a temporary repair was made.

When they reached the Doldrums, Hanakamp was happy with their entry, but disappointed with their exit. "The first half of the crossing was OK," he said, "but then we were faced with light head winds which took us nowhere." The leaders were, by then, 200 nm away, and there was a lot of work to do for the Russian crew to move up the rankings.

On day 20, Kosatka crept four miles ahead of Team Delta Lloyd. Twenty-four hours later and the gap had increased to seven miles and they had overtaken the damaged Telefónica Black as well.

Forty-eight hours later, the delta between Team Delta Lloyd and the Russians had lengthened to 47 nm and Telefónica Blue was almost within range. But, Kosatka had run out of runway, and Telefónica Blue finished ahead, but still within striking distance, and only three hours ahead.

The next boat to finish will be Team Delta Lloyd later today GMT tonight.

Leg One Finishing Order into Cape Town
1. Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael / BRA)
2. PUMA USA (Ken Read / USA)
3. Ericsson 3 SWE (Anders Lewander / SWE)
4. Green Dragon IRL / CHN (Ian Walker / GBR)
5. Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking / NED)
6. Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp / AUT)

Overall Leaderboard (Provisional)
1. Ericsson 4: 14 points (FINISHED)
2. PUMA: 13 points (FINISHED)
3. Green Dragon: 11 points (FINISHED)
4. Telefónica Blue: 10 points (FINISHED)
5. Telefónica Black: 6 points (RACING)
6. Ericsson 3: 5 points (FINISHED)*
7. Team Russia: 4 points (FINISHED)
8. Delta Lloyd: 2 points (RACING)

*leg one scoring http://volvooceanrace.org/news/article/2008/november/scoring-explained/

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The Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 will be the 10th running of this ocean marathon. Starting from Alicante in Spain, on 4 October 2008 with in-port racing, it will, for the first time, take in Cochin, India, Singapore and Qingdao, China before finishing in St Petersburg, Russia for the first time in the history of the race.

Spanning some 37,000 nautical miles, stopping at 11 ports and taking nine months to complete, the Volvo Ocean Race is the world's premier yacht race for professional racing crews.