Sailors ready to battle for medal race today

John Lovell and Charlie Ogletree of the United States compete in Tornado class yesterday at the Qingdao International Regatta. Ju Chuangjiang

With two or three races yesterday (49ers did not race), eight classes will scramble for medals today.

To date, the Britons rank first in Finn, Laser, and Yngling, while the French lead RS:X Women and Star and the United States, Australia, Japan, Austria, Denmark, and China the Laser Radial, 470 Men, 470 Women, Tornado, 49er, and RS:X Men respectively.

Twice Olympic gold medalist Ben Ainslie could only manage a fifth and a sixth in the Finn yesterday.

But he still tops the rankings because he had previously not finished outside the top two.

"I'm not sure about the standings yet, but I think the Croatian sailor might be catching up to me," he said.

"I will be much more careful and conservative in the coming races."

French Star sailors Xavier Rohart and Pascal Rambeau ranked first and second in yesterday's races and stand first in the current placings.

Unlike other sailors, they enjoyed their sailing out on the sea after a good start.

Chinese windsurfers Zhou Yuanguo and Yin Jian ranked overall first and third respectively and earned entry to today's medal race.

Yin was condemned to OCS (on course side), which made her take last place in the first race yesterday, but she confirmed her overall third place.

French sailor Faustine Merret and British Alessandra Sensini occupy the first and second place in RS:X Women.

"In the first race, both China and Norway OCSed," Merret said.

"I was able to capitalize on this a bit, which put me ahead of the competition. The biggest challenge in today's race was the downwind.

"We were once again working to sail in light wind and heavy current conditions.

"With all competitors being so close together, everyone needed to maneuver appropriately to get a piece of the wind."

Today, Laser, Laser Radial and Yngling will contest several races before the medal race.

Chinese Laser Radial sailor Xu Lijia stands 11th after yesterday's two races, making today's performance crucial to her medal race qualification.

Chinese Ynglingers jumped to tenth place, following Greek and German sailors by two points.

(China Daily 08/22/2007 page24)