Telefónica backs Spanish Team in Volvo Ocean Race

The campaign will again be spearheaded by Pedro Campos as CEO, while Bouwe Bekking, skipper of the Spanish entry movistar in the previous race, returns as Sports and Technical Director. Spanish Olympians, Iker Martínez and Fernando Echávarri among the principal members of the sailing team, which will be based in the start port of Alicante.

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Both boats, designed under an exclusive deal with Farr Yacht Design, will be differentiated by hull colour and named Telefónica Blue and Telefónica Black.

Announcing the details of the campaign, Campos said he expected this edition of the Volvo Ocean Race to be particularly tough. ³I am pretty sure this Volvo Ocean Race is going to be the fiercest one in the history of the race,² he said.

³The second generation Volvo Open 70s and the new course represent a big challenge. We are going to have some new talent onboard, coming from the Olympic arena and the big boat circuit in Spain. This new bunch of guys, plus the experienced ones we have from the last race are going to develop into a really compact group,² he added.

The Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 will be the 10th running of this ocean marathon. Starting from Alicante in Spain, on 4 October 2008, it will, for the first time, take in Kochi, Singapore and Qingdao before finishing in St Petersburg, Russia for the first time in the history of the race. Spanning some 37,000 nautical miles, stopping at around 11 ports and taking nine months to complete, the Volvo Ocean Race is the world¹s premier yacht race for professional racing crews.