Hamble yachtsman Neal McDonald has the Volvo Ocean Race trophy in sight after posting his third leg victory in Assa Abloy and beating race leaders illbruck in the eighth leg from La Rochelle to Gothenburg.

The penultimate leg was one of the closest yet and was decided early yesterday monring in the last two miles of the 1,000nm passage which took them through the busy English Channel and up into the North Sea skirting the Scandinavian coast.

In the end, just seven minutes separated the first five boats but crucially it was Assa that crossed the finish line first and illbruck, who have a five-point lead in the race but have earned relatively few points on the short courses, came fourth.

If McDonald can win the final leg and illbruck comes fifth or worse, the title goes to the Hamble skipper, who started the race as watchleader and was promoted after the first leg from Southampton to Cape Town.

"In terms of the race and my personal goals, the door is not shut yet.

"We'll have our weather team starting tomorrow and we'll have to push the boat now and be a bit radical."

At the Turbaduren Light which marks the entrance into the Gothenburg archipelago, Assa Abloy, Tyco, illbruck and News Corp were still within a mile of each other.

Amer Sports One, a mile further back, managed to catch up in the closing stages but McDonald's crew, which includes Lymington's Jason Carrington, kept a cool head to take victory.

Jez Fanstone, the Lymington skipper of News Corp, is set for a fourth place overall while Team Tyco, with Hamble navigator Steve Hayles on board lies in fifth, with one final 250-mile sprint from Gothenburg to Kiel remaining on June 9.

Leaderboard: 1 illbruck 54, 2 Assa Abloy 49, 3 Amer Sports One 40, 4 News Corp 40, 5 Tyco 40, 6 SEB 29.7 DJCE 25.8 Amer Sports Too 11,