Racing resumes as wind returns

Australian athletes Nathan Outteridge and Ben Austin compete during the 49er race yesterday at Qingdao International Regatta. They are currently ranked third overall. Ju Chenghao

A breath of wind finally blew into Qingdao city around 3:30pm yesterday, just half an hour before the postponement deadline.

Organizers made full use of the wind to hastily arrange at least one race for all nine sailboats and classes on the sixth scheduled race day of the 2007 Good Luck Beijing Sinopec Qingdao International Regatta.

After two days wait, sailors in the 49er class hoisted their sails for three races.

But unfortunately the wind was too weak for the men's and women's windsurfers to take to the water.

That made Chinese spectators quite happy though because it left home sailor Zhou Yuanguo in RS:X Men in the lead for at least another day.

Some spectators joked that they hoped the wind would stop for the rest of the regatta, so that Zhou, China's chief medal hopeful at next year's Games, would retain the lead.

But Chinese sailing fans also had something new to cheer about.

Laser Radial sailor Xu Lijia finally displayed her medal-winning capabilities by finishing second in the second race yesterday.

Left: Greek windsurfer Antonia Frai and Cypriote sailor Gavriela Hadjidamianou return from their RS:X race yesterday. Center: 49er atheltes. Right: French athletes Ingrid Petitjean and Nadege Douroux in the 470 women's race. Ju Chenghao/Ju Chuanjiang

Her ranking jumped from 20 to 15.

The Chinese sailing team pinned high hopes on her to win a medal at the future Olympic Games.

The 20-year-old world champion did not perform well in the first few days under the intense glare of the media spotlight.

Xu has refused to talk about her performances - even her good one yesterday.

But Anna Tunnicliffe from the US, now ranked second, told China Daily that she thought Xu's performance was smart yesterday.

Jo Aleh from Australia still kept her crown in the Laser Radial class, naming the fun-loving Tunnicliffe her biggest challenger.

Tunnicliffe said the secret of her success was to be relaxed.

"I just went out and sailed my own race, without worries about the wind and current here," she said.

In more good news for the home team, China's 470 Men sailors Chen Hechi and Wang Suhong finished first in their second race yesterday to move up to 19th overall.

Although the newly paired team might not make the top five this year, they finally hit their straps.

"We are in a very good psychological condition today," Wang said, adding that he was not surprised at all to win the race.

Briton Ben Ainslie in the Finn and Austrians Roman Hagara and Hans Peter Steinacher in the Tornado class failed to surprise their fans by bagging a characteristic first in yesterday's race, tightening their grip on these two classes.

Britain's Yngling and Laser teams have managed to ace their races so far and both are red-hot favorites to lead the classes until the end of the regatta.

New leaders emerged in Israel, Australia, New Zealand and Denmark in dramatic reshuffles to the 470 Men, 470 Women, Star and 49er classes respectively.

Iker Martinez, who had skippered his boat to lead the 49er class until yesterday, admitted to having a hard day.

"But the top six teams are quite close in their scoring so far," he said, hinting at a tough fight for the crown today.

According to the racing schedule, the medal race for the top ten in each class this year is scheduled to begin tomorrow.

Competitors earn two points for each position in this race, making it crucial to the overall ranking.

Competition manager Qu Chun said on Sunday that if the weather was unsuitable for racing on August 22, the medal round would be postponed to August 23 or 24.

If no wind blows up on these dates, medals will be awarded according to final point scores.

(China Daily 08/21/2007 page24)