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Dongfeng team won the Volvo Ocean Race 2017/18

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Yesterday, visitors to The Hague Race Village were treated to an incredible finale to the final leg of the 2017/18 Volvo Ocean Race. The Hong Kong team Dongfeng snatched first place at the finish line and in the overall regatta standings in a tense battle.

At the beginning of the last leg, the Hong Kong team was confidently at the head of the fleet. However, during the three days of the competition, it was several times inferior to the Akzobobel team, and on Saturday, it was 50 nautical miles behind.

In such a defeated, at first sight, position Dongfeng appeared, having broken away from the main group of participants, which went to the open sea by southeast course. The Hong Kong people chose the eastern route along the coast.

In the end, Dongfeng's strategy proved to be correct: overnight they closed the gap as much as possible and within 25 miles of the finish line, they literally passed in front of their main rivals, snatching their first victory in 11 stages of this round-the-world campaign.

«We weren't in the best of positions, but we trusted our choices and we tried," said an enthusiastic Charles Ca udrelier, Dongfeng's skipper, "others didn't follow us, but we believed and we won...»

Thanks to this achievement, Dongfeng became the first Chinese flagged team to win the Volvo Ocean Race and its members Carolijn Brouwer and Marie Riou were the first women to win this challenging round-the-world regatta.

The AkzoNobel crew was the second to reach Dutch shores. This did not affect blue and purple crews' position in the overall ranking and they retained their fourth place. In this case the crew has something to be proud of: in 9 months of racing they have broken the world speed record and were in the top three of the leaders six times.

MAPFRE's red boat crossed the finish line third, thus moving down to second place in the standings. Team Brunel was at the end of the top three and finished the final race fourth.

Fifth place was taken by Vestas 11th Hour Racing crew, which was the last to arrive to The Hague port. And SHK / Scallywag and Turn the Tide on Plastic are at the bottom of the table, with the same amount of points - the points for the port races will decide their fate, the last of which will be held on June 30.

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