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Third for CAMPER in Leg 3 but looking for more

Sunday 5 February 2012, 12:58PM

By Emirates Team New Zealand

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CAMPER finishing in Sanya.
CAMPER finishing in Sanya. Credit: Emirates Team New Zealand
Chris Nicholson greets his son Banjo at the finish of Leg 3.
Chris Nicholson greets his son Banjo at the finish of Leg 3. Credit: Emirates Team New Zealand
Chris Nicholson waves as CAMPER crosses the finish line for Leg 3.
Chris Nicholson waves as CAMPER crosses the finish line for Leg 3. Credit: Emirates Team New Zealand

After thirteen days at sea CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand has taken third place in Leg Three and retained their second overall position in the Volvo Ocean Race.

At the end of an exhausting last few days beating up the Vietnamese coastline CAMPER managed to hold off Puma to cross the finish line at 1528 local time/2028 NZT continuing their run of podium finishes.

However, it was a case of missed opportunities for CAMPER who despite a spirited fight-back did not manage to recover vital mile lost in a tactical error in the Malacca Strait.

CAMPER Skipper Chris Nicholson says that it was an incredibly challenging leg.

“It’s been really tough physically and mentally and while it’s another podium finish it’s not the direction we want to be travelling in. We thought and expected to do better than third to be honest.

“It’s a very long race and we’re staying in touch with the leader but the reality is that we’re not performing well enough and need to deliver a more consistent showing. It’s time for a first and hopefully that will be the next one as we come into Auckland.

“At one stage in this leg we were fifth and I think we showed a lot of character within the team to fight back to third. To grab that position is good and it’s a positive for us to finish on. However there’s still a lot of thought required about how we can start winning legs. There’s a lot of determination amongst these guys and even if at times we don’t have the fastest boat on the water we’ll do everything we can to scrap into a podium place.

“We now need to go away look at our performance in the leg, review and debrief everything in detail, see what went well and what didn’t and ensure that we come out absolutely firing for the next leg into Auckland.

“Heading back home and to where it all started is going to be massive for us and we want to deliver the best result for all our supporters.

“There’s a lot of work we need to do to achieve that so after a decent rest we will be back in training on and off the water to lift our performance.”

CAMPER picked up 19 point for the truncated leg from Abu Dhabi to Sanya to be sitting on a total of 80 points, 15 astray of Telefonica and 9 ahead of Groupama.