MADRID (AFP) — Chinese-Irish entry Green Dragon on Thursday became the first team to cross the first scoring gate at Ilha de Fernando de Noronha, off the Brazilian coast, in the Volvo Ocean Race around the world.
The yacht, sponsored by China and crewed mainly by British and Irish sailors, rounded at 12:24 GMT, followed by Ericsson 4 of Sweden and Puma Racing of the United States which came in third, organizers said.
The four points which Green Dragon earned at the scoring gate place it in a three-way tie at the top of the leaderboard with Ericsson 4 and Puma with six points each. Eight yachts in total are taking part in the race.
"I don't think anybody was expecting us to do as well as this at the start of the race," said Green Dragon's British skipper Ian Walker.
"I guess we were hoping if things went really well for us to be in the top three. But we certainly never expected anything like this at the first gate," the Olympic silver medalist added.
"We're delighted on board. We've been leading for a few days now and and every single position report we're watching to see if they're closing in on us, but we're holding them off."
Green Dragon approached the windy equatorial region of the Atlantic known as the Doldrums which is prone to violent weather shifts from an extreme westerly crossing point which required it to put in extra tacks to reach the scoring gate.
It is now headed towards Cape Town where the yachts taking part in the race which got underway in the Spanish port of Alicante on October 11 are expected to arrive around November 3 at the end of the first 6,500-mile leg of the race.
The finish line in the race of 37,000 nautical miles is in St Petersburg, Russia, where the teams are expected in June 2009.
Each of the yachts receive points according to their position in each of the 10 legs. Half points are also awarded at six scoring gates along the route and for the seven 'in-port' races.
On October 4, Telefonica Blue took an early lead in the competition by winning the first of the in-port regattas, in Alicante.
Positions as of 1600 GMT Thursday:
1. Green Dragon (IRL-CHI)/Ian Walker (ENG) 3,343 miles from Cape Town
2. Puma Racing (USA)/Ken Read (USA) 5 miles behind
3. Ericsson 4 (SWE)/Torben Grael (BRA) 6 miles
4. Telefonica Black (ESP)/Fernando Echavarri (ESP) 8 miles
5. Telefonica Blue (ESP)/Bouwe Bekking (NED) 67 miles
6. Ericsson 3 (SWE)/Anders Lewander (SWE) 121 miles
7. Delta Lloyd (NED)/Ger O'Rourke (IRL) 142 miles
8. Team Russia (RUS)/Andreas Hannakamp (AUT) 171 miles
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