Volvo Ocean Race skipper Mike Sanderson of Team Sanya
 
Mike Sanderson is set to miss the qualifying event for the 2011/12 Volvo Ocean Race after he was rushed to hospital for an emergency appendicitis operation in Alicante Spain.
The 40 year old skipper of Chinese entry Team Sanya, who won the 2005-06 race on ABN AMRO ONE was flying from France to Spain when he started experiencing severe stomach pains and was taken to hospital soon after landing for the emergency operation.
 
He is set to miss next Friday’s Volvo Ocean Race 600 mile qualifying leg from the southern Spanish port but all being well, will be fully recovered by the time The first In-Port Race gets underway in Alicante on October 29 ahead of the first Volvo Ocean Race leg to Cape Town on November 5.
 
British skipper Alex Thomson was forced to miss the start of the Barcelona World Race on New Years Eve last year after he had an emergency appendectomy just days before the start of the two handed non stop round the world race.
 
Being at sea when the appendix becomes inflamed would have posed dangers to the skipper’s health said Volvo Ocean Race chief executive Knut Frostad.
 
"This is the worst thing that can happen when you’re in the middle of the ocean as Mike would have been in just six or seven weeks time," he said.
 
SOURCE: telegraph.co.uk 
 
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