England's Paul Stand bridge, the newly-appointed skipper of Toshiba, and his Australian-dominated crew received a rousing welcome when they crossed the finishing line in Fremantle, at the end of the second stage of the Whitbread Round the World Race.

Toshiba came third in the leg behind Swedish Match and Innovation Kvaerner and collected 97 points to climb to sixth place on the overall leaderboard.

For Standbridge, who took over as skipper following the resignation of Chris Dickson in the wake of a poor showing in the first leg, the result was especially rewarding. The Hampshire man had tried unsuccessfully to put together his own UK campaign.

Second-placed Norwegian entry Innovation Kvaerner will move into pole position overall if EF Language fails to improve on its current fifth place.

Knut Frostad, the youngest skipper in the race, said: "I don't think we can put too much into the fact that we are leading the race. It's a nine-leg regatta and it's only two legs now."

Only three boats had completed the second leg yesterday and an exciting finish was in prospect before six o'clock this morning for fourth place between Silk Cut, skippered by Lawrie Smith, and EF Language (Paul Cayard).

EF Language suffered more damage yesterday when the starboard groove was blown off the head foil which had been cracked from one of the earlier pole smashings.