Brad Van Liew crowned ocean sprint three winner at awards ceremony
Brad Van Liew - winner of leg 3 into Punta del Este. Image copyright Ainhoa Sanchez/onEdition.
by Sarah Hames
THE VELUX 5 OCEANS was graced by solo sailing royalty last night when French legend Christophe Auguin made a surprise appearance at the ocean sprint three prize giving ceremony.
Christophe, the only sailor ever to win two editions of the VELUX 5 OCEANS and a Vendée Globe, joined the four skippers of the current edition of the race in Punta del Este, Uruguay to celebrate the 7,000-mile leg from Wellington, New Zealand. Christophe is one of the most celebrated solo sailors in the world having won the 1990 and 1994 editions of the VELUX 5 OCEANS, then known as the BOC Challenge, as well as the 1996 Vendée Globe.
Christophe joined more than 120 guests at the Yacht Club Punta del Este for the awards evening which saw American ocean racer Brad Van Liew crowned winner of ocean sprint three. Brad also picked up the sprint three sustainability prize for the best communications around the theme of food. The theme for sprint four is power.
The winners of the media awards were also announced. British skipper Chris Stanmore-Major was awarded the prize for the best blogs while Polish ocean racer Zbigniew ‘Gutek’ Gutkowski took home the best photo award. Unable to choose one standout skipper for the video award, the judges gave the prize to Chris and Brad jointly.
The awards were presented to the skippers by Yacht Club Punta del Este commodore Horacio Garcia Pastori and Carolina Lombardi from VELUX Argentina.
Ocean sprint four, a 5,700-mile leg from Punta del Este to Charleston in the USA, starts at 1pm local time (1600 UTC) on Sunday.
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