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Dalton bows out of world race

Dalton: More than 300,000 NM of ocean racing

AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- Yachtsman Grant Dalton, Amer Sports One skipper, has said he will not compete again in the round-the-world Volvo Ocean Race.

The 44-year-old New Zealander will end a 20-year involvement with the race in June when he steps ashore in Kiel, Germany at the end of the final leg.

Dalton, who has competed five times in the race formerly called Whitbread, said: "I won't do another race like this Volvo again.

"But I will do another non-stop race because I enjoyed it."

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The Volvo Ocean Race consists of nine legs, with stops at 10 ports, racing through four oceans. Amer Sports One lies in second place, behind Germany's Illbruck after four legs.

Dalton, with three previous wins and two second place finishes, broke two ribs in a fall on the Cape Town to Sydney leg and fractured three vertebrae.

He also developed trench foot, a level of cold reached prior to getting frostbite, which involves serious damage to nerve endings, during the Southern Ocean leg from Auckland, New Zealand to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Dalton still intends to compete in The Race in 2004, a no-rules non-stop sprint around the world beginning and ending in Marseille, France.

He won the event in his catamaran Club Med last year.