Doctors have diagnosed Wardley (right) with bronchitis

A female British member of a round-the-world yacht race has been told she has not contracted the Sars virus.

Anna Wardley, from Sheffield, fell ill with a fever on Wednesday during a three-week stopover in Hong Kong and was isolated in her hotel room while tests were carried out.

However, a Hong Kong government statement said she had since been diagnosed with bronchitis.

"Despite earlier speculation, Ms Wardley did not contract atypical pneumonia during her three-week stay in Hong Kong," the statement said.

"She will be waiting in Singapore to re-join the crew and continue with the race."

Wardley's fellow crew members were allowed to embark on the second half of the round-the-world yacht race on Thursday, but organisers have been forced to re-route the event amid fears over spreading the virus.

The race's next destination had originally been San Fernando city in the Philippines, but the race is now heading to Singapore after crews aboard the eight boats were given health checks.

A total of 88 people have died and nearly 1,400 cases have been reported in Hong Kong since the Sars outbreak began six weeks ago.

Symptoms include Sars symptoms include a high fever, dry coughing and breathing problems.

"I started to feel ill on Wednesday as we got the boat ready to leave and went to bed early, thinking it was just tiredness," said Wardley, who has been filing columns for the BBC Sport website.

"But by early Thursday morning I was shaking terribly, had a fever and was having real problems breathing."