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The U.S. team 11th Hour Racing

Photograph:

Amory Ross / dpa

A suspected collision with a sea creature has resulted in injuries aboard the 11th Hour Racing team at Ocean Race. On the fifth leg in the direction of Aarhus/Denmark, about 750 nautical miles from the coast of Newfoundland, a strong impact suddenly caused the crew members to be thrown forward.

Trimmer Charlie Dalin suffered a mild concussion after initial diagnoses. Amory Ross, who is in charge of reporting on the U.S. boat, injured his shoulder. The rest of the crew was unharmed, but was "shocked" by the impact. The team suspects that they have collided with a "marine mammal or megafauna" and announced that they would report the incident to the International Whaling Commission.

The crews were traveling at high speeds at the time of the collision. About 1400 kilometers off the coast of Newfoundland, we headed north at 54 km/h. The U.S. team's yacht was not damaged by the accident, the crew said.

In the meantime, skipper Charlie Enright and his team have picked up speed again and are still in the lead ahead of Holcim and the Malizia. Pursuer Team Holcim-PRB gets closer to the leading crew with the fabulous record of 640.91 nautical miles within 24 hours. The gap was only nine nautical miles on Friday morning. The new record has yet to be ratified. With the impressive day's course, the Swiss team has eclipsed the eight-year-old 24-hour record of the "Comanche", which was previously considered the measure of all things for monohull yachts.

Malizia, led by German skipper Boris Herrmann, was third at the time, about 65 nautical miles behind. Between Monday afternoon and Tuesday, the first teams are expected to reach the destination port in Aarhus.

Team Malizia gets off to a successful start in the fifth stage

Team Malizia had recently started the fifth stage of the Ocean Race in the best possible way and had won the harbour race of Newport in the US state of Rhode Island. The team was able to relegate the US rivals from the 11th Hour Racing team to second place in light winds in their home turf.

Although the results of the harbour races are not directly included in the Ocean Race classification, they are used as a means of decision-making if two or more teams are tied on points at the end of the race around the world after a total of seven stages.

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