SAILING:A FOURTH place for overall leader Iker Martinez on Telefonica in the sixth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race into Miami on Wednesday marked a potential game-change in the 39,000-mile contest.

The Spaniard’s lead has shrunk to just 11 points with three legs remaining before the race ends in Galway at the start of July.

American Ken Read won his second consecutive leg having led the five-boat pack from Brazil 18 days ago. There is now a spread of just 17 points between overall first and fourth places; a leg win scores 30 points and Martinez needs to start winning legs once again to deliver the widely-anticipated victory his team appeared to be on the cusp of.

His principal rival is Franck Cammas on Groupama who placed third into Miami but the latter is in turn under pressure from Camper in third place overall and Read in fourth, with just six points between the three.

Cammas’s watch-leader Damian Foxall was thrilled with their result, having first worked to overtake Ian Walker’s Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing and later on Telefonica earlier this week.

“It’s a pretty important result, if we’d come behind Telefonica here our chances for the race would be seriously diminished, it’s quite a big difference being in front or behind,” said Foxall. “As the results stand now, it’s a restart.”