Olympic champion Merret fails to shine

QINGDAO: France's Athens Olympics gold medalist Faustine Merret failed to live up to expectation yesterday, settling for a fourth place in the 2007 Qingdao International Regatta.

The RS:X sailor's disqualification in the fifth race and tenth in the medal race made her a shock omission from the podium presentation.

Merret's formidable experience and hard training regime has won her numerous international medals, none more precious than her gold from Athens.

Merret has since become a shining star in windsurfing.

The sport's post-Athens transformation from Minstral to RS:X class couldn't stop Merret from finishing atop the leader board and she has secured two gold and one bronze medals on the world stage since 2004.

"I do a lot of sports and also I practice wind sailing - I mean surf," Merret told China Daily when asked the secret of her successful transformation.

"The year after the Athens Olympics I did a year of competitive windsurfing to train.

"After Athens Olympics, I went to study in Paris.

"I haven't had any training for two months when I took part in a sailing competition held in France. I got 18th. After that I knew I should come back to train."

After training harder than ever before, she burst back into the top ranks by getting the gold medal in the 2006 Holland Regatta.

"After Olympic, I will stop windsurfing," the 2006 Qingdao International Regatta gold medalist said.

"But for sure I will keep on sailing and doing some other sports."

Merret rates her first world championship as her career highlight.

"It was really good to make you surprised about yourself," she recalled.

"That is especially good when you were young. "

Despite her vast experience, Merret is not content with her achievements to date.

This year, although yet to qualify for next August's Games, she came back to Qingdao to keep her Olympic dream going.

(China Daily 08/23/2007 page24)