By Si Tingting (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-08-25 13:21

QINGDAO: To win gold at a sailing event, competence and confidence aren't enough. Sometimes, luck has the final say.

For China's top-notch windsurfer Zhou Yuanguo, the good fortune of a light wind is all he needs to win.

In the just concluded Good Luck Beijing Olympic sailing test event, Zhou was blown off from his throne in the RS:X Men class by an unusually strong wind (8m/s, while on average days, just 3m/s) in the final medal race, finishing a distant ninth place, his worst in the regatta. He lost his gold to New Zealander Tom Ashley, who loves stronger winds.

However, Zhou's excellent performance in the six preliminary races got him four bullets to secure second place on the podium.

"When the wind is weak, Zhou is the strongest of us. The wind changed today. We couldn't have the chance to catch up with him until the wind gets stronger," Ashley said after he won gold. "I think Zhou and me are the fastest among all the athletes," he added.

Deshopol Phuanukoolnont, the Thai windsurfing coach, bet on Zhou's victory two weeks before the medal race.

"I had been observing Zhou for the past 10 years, and I think Zhou is No 1 in light wind," the Thai coach said.

Phuanukoolnont's prescription for Zhou is to get physically stronger so that he can control the boat in strong winds.

Zhou, a native in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, is 174cm in height, the smallest of the windsurfers at the Qingdao regatta.

"I think I still have a big gap with the world's leading windsurfers. After the event, I need to analyze my sailing, and try to fill this gap for future races," Zhou said.

As the only Chinese who managed to get a medal at the Olympic sailing test event a year before the Games, Zhou carried on his shoulder the Chinese sailing team's ambition to win gold at the Beijing Games.

Head of the Chinese sailing team Yao Xinpei once hinted in an interview with China Daily that China was targeting gold in either the RS:X Men or RS:X Women or Laser Radial at the Beijing Games. But in this year's test, RS:X Women sailor Yin Jian managed fifth place in the overall standing while the 20-year-old Laser Radial sailor Xu Lijia failed to reach the final medal race.

Zhou seems to have the best chance to win gold next year.

But before that, 30-year-old Zhou still has to fight to win the Olympic qualification test next April with his strong and much younger teammates, like the 18-year-old Fang Zhennan and 23-year-old He Feng, who won the gold and silver respectively in RS:X Men in last year's test event.

"My biggest challenge is my teammates right now," Zhou said. "They are younger than me, but I think I'm stronger in terms of experience."

Zhou's best Olympic performance was a fifth place at the 2000 Sydney Games, where he unwittingly violated race rules banning contact between competitors and coaches within five minutes of races when he handed his coach a jacket.

"He had good chances to win a bronze or even a silver without that incident," Yao told China Daily last week.

Zhou's presence at this regatta revealed his attempt to conclude his sailing career with an Olympic medal.

"I wanted to retire from sailing in 2005 as I really felt tired then. But I found I was still able to play my game. Right now I spend six days of a week on the water," Zhou said.

Aiming to take advantage of the home turf and favorable wind conditions in Qingdao, Zhou believes an Olympic gold is not far way.