Rowing: Kiwi pair grab the lead in ocean race

New Zealand policeman Steve Westlake and Matt Goodman have extended the long arm of the law and now lead the transatlantic rowing challenge.

Last night, the pair had overhauled the Australian crew on Freedom and were holding a slender five-nautical-mile lead.

Westlake and Goodman had about 1910 nautical miles (3537km) to reach their destination - Barbados, 2900 miles (4667km) from the starting point in the Canary Islands.

New Zealand's female team of Steph Brown and Jude Ellis have also made significant progress, overtaking a Belgian crew to jump into third spot.

They had another 2043 nautical miles to cover.

Ellis said it was "just amazing" to find they had overtaken the Belgian men 11 days into the race.

"It's really awesome. We didn't really expect to be this far up the fleet at this stage of the race," she said.

"Our pre-race aim was to do this in 50 days, but secretly I've been hoping that it will take us less than that."

The winners are expected to take about 40 days to make the crossing.

"Everything has gone pretty well for us so far," Ellis said. "We've got good weather, we've slipped into a routine well, we're getting on fine and we've had no major breakages."

Meanwhile, the heavy psychological strain of rowing across the ocean has taken its toll on some of the 36 crews who set off on the challenge.

One crew has already set their boat alight and withdrawn from the race, another has lost half its crew and others have considered pulling out.

New Zealand's Rob Hamill, victorious with the late Phil Stubbs in 1997, said it was hard to understand how, after four intense years of planning, competitors could pull out of the race so early.

"In a way, it's quite courageous - they have to bite their own pride and egos to make that decision. But having said that, it's hard to comprehend, too, because of the commitment that goes into a campaign," he said.

"In some ways the hardest part of the race is making the startline. But the whole psychological thing of this challenge is really fascinating.

"If someone asks me whether they should carry on or not I'd tell them to think of [competitor] Ian Charter. Last time he pulled out of the race after three hours. This time he's having another go - because he had to live with that decision to withdraw for four long years."

- NZPA