Denmark is staging a stopover for the first time with the IMOCA and VO65 crews arriving on May 29 and leaving today as they set sail to The Hague in The Netherlands.

Aarhus is a regular host of major sailing events having held the World Championships for all the Olympic disciplines in 2018 and was a fly-bye as part of The Ocean Race that same year.

Brisius said he was delighted to turn Denmark’s dream of hosting The Ocean Race into a reality and had been impressed by the delivery of the 10-day stopover.

"Coming here has been a journey of almost 10 years since the first idea came about to bring the race to Denmark for the first time," Brisius told insidethegames.

"Now seeing the city of Aarhus, it is an outstanding event organisation.

"They have something here that is truly world-class and that’s hard to combine as you need the public support and strong leadership here in the city of Aarhus.

"Denmark is quite unique in having Sport Event Denmark as a strong strategic body and you can see how it comes together.

"It’s just great.

"Denmark is a small country but I think they are punching above their weight in many ways."

As well as hosting The Ocean Race, Aarhus staged The Ocean Race Summit, Business Summit and Youth Summit over the past 11 days.

Aarhus has also created Sustainability Island as part of the Ocean Live Park where innovative exhibitors and entrepreneurs showcased solutions for a more sustainable world.

"We had 70 cities that were interested in hosting this edition," said Brisius.

"One of the matters which is important to us is to understand that if we come with The Ocean Race what impact will that have on the sustainability strategies and plans in your city.

"We have a big programme around science, learning and ocean rights which they can get access to but we want to know what are you going to do?

"In Aarhus, we had a fly-bye here five years ago and it was at a very high level but when it comes to all the activities we have done together on ocean health and sustainability, it has been outstanding."

Asked whether The Ocean Race will return to Aarhus, Brisius added: "We would love to come back to Denmark in the future.

"The Finance Minister said come back for 50 years!

"I said I think we share an ambition.

"This is our final day here, it’s gone very quickly.

"It’s been a 10-day stopover, but the show must go on."

The Ocean Race was originally due to stop in China with Shenzhen announced in 2019 as a hosting city for this edition.

But Shenzhen was forced to cancel due to the coronavirus pandemic, while the start of the race was postponed from October 2022 to January 2023.

The Ocean Race has previously stopped in China on four occasions and Brisius said he hoped to return to the Asian nation for the 2026-2027 edition.

"We have been here since 2008 so we really want to go back to China and the winder part of Asia as well," added the Swedish official.

"How are we going to do that?

"We are discussing with the local organisers that we are working with in China.

"We don’t have a concrete plan, but do we want to go back?

"Yes."