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50,000 cheer Illbruck to victory

Illbruck: On top of the world

KIEL, Germany -- Germany's Illbruck has sealed victory in the round-the-world Volvo Ocean Race in her home port of Kiel after an eight-and-a-half month battle.

John Kostecki's crew crossed the line on Sunday to complete the ninth and final leg, a 250-mile one-day sprint from Gothenburg, Sweden, at 1617 GMT (1817 local time).

About 50,000 spectators and thousands of craft turned out at the port to welcome the German team.

Illbruck held off Assa Abloy to finish second in the leg and take overall honours. Knut Frostad's Djuice of Norway was the surprise winner of the leg.

Another surprise result came from Lisa Macdonald and the all-female crew on Amer Sports Too who managed a fourth place in the leg.

Neal McDonald's Assa Abloy had kept alive hopes of an overall victory by winning the penultimate leg, their third leg victory, to her home port of Gothenburg, Sweden on Wednesday.

Assa Abloy had to win the final leg and finish six places ahead of Illbruck -- a task that proved too much.

The 32,700-mile race started from Southampton, England on September 23.

Right from the start, Team Illbruck, with American Olympic silver medalist Kostecki as captain, confirmed its status as race favourite.

It won the first leg from Southampton to Cape Town and the final tally was four first places, two seconds and three fourths.

The $25 million campaign was backed by 42-year-old German industrialist Michael Illbruck, a keen offshore sailor who did not sail with the crew.

Their preparation for the race was faultless. They began work on the Volvo campaign well before anyone else by buying the two identical EF Language boats from the last race as a test platform to develop sails and crew.

This extra time also allowed Farr Yacht Design to carry out extra research and development for the final design of the race boat.

Also noticeable was the minimal number of crew changes made by Kostecki compared with the other teams.

Ninth leg Gothenburg to Kiel

Final overall points