OLYMPICS/ Preliminaries
Asian sailors turn the tide on European counterparts
By Si Tingting (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-08-20 09:44
QINGDAO: Three Asian sailors have debuted at the top of the leaders' board after Saturday's racing in the Good Luck Beijing 2007 Sinopec Qingdao International Regatta.
The trio of Chinese windsurfer Zhou Yuanguo and Japanese women Ai Kondo and Naoko Kamata emerged the new leaders in the RS:X Men's and 470 Women's classes.
Together they broke a European monopoly of leading positions from the first two days of competition.
But the fifth day of competition was postponed due to lack of wind yesterday.
"I think that's my normal performance," the reserved Zhou said after snaring two first places in Saturday's two races, moving up from third overall to the top.
The 30-year-old'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 mentor a jacket.
Athletes compete during the 49er race on Saturday at the Qingdao International Regatta, where a lack of wind saw yesterday's competition postponed. Ju Chuanjiang
"He had good chances to win a bronze or even a silver without that incident," Yao Xinpei, head of the Chinese sailing team, told China Daily last week.
Yao also hinted China was aiming at a gold in either RS:X Men or RS:X Women or Laser Radial at the Beijing Games.
China's Athens Olympic silver medalist Yin Jian performed commendably in the first four races of the RS:X women's windsurfing, securing third with a comfortable nine-point gap to Italy's Alessandra Sensini.
But China's 20-year-old Laser Radial sailor Xu Lijia failed to live up to expectation in the first of four races and ended up in 20th place.
"She's too young to know how to handle the pressure from the media," Yao said.
He believes Xu's unexpectedly bad performance was largely because of the local media's push, but still has the utmost confidence in the young world champion.
The British team continued to perform well in the fourth day of racing, holding its lead in four fleets, RS:X Women, Laser, Finn and Yngling.
But the British were not able to secure their first place at the 470 Men, handing their crown to Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page from Australia.
British legend Ben Ainslie had a storming win at the first Olympic sailing test event last year, with a scorecard featuring first and second places only.
So far at this year's regatta he's maintained his status in the Finn with all finishes in top two.
"I think Rita is a lucky name to name my boat," said Ainslie, the Olympic dual gold medalist who has named every one of his boats Rita after a suggestion from his mother.
Many sailors admitted to making wrong decisions during Saturday's races, when the wind blew perpendicular to currents.
Even previous winners sailed quite badly to suffer dramatic falls in their overall ranking.
Evi Van Acker from Belgium in the Laser Radial class said her performance on Saturday sucked, and she fell from first to second place.
"I will get my yellow dot back," she vowed, in reference to the sticker stuck on the winner's sail.
Also in the Laser Radial, Lisa Ross from Canada fell from third to 12th place and was too upset to comment on her performance.
The main contenders for first placings in the Tornado and 49er classes are already apparent, with Roman Hagara and Hans Peter Steinacher from Austria and Iker Martinez and Xabier Fernandez from Spain respectively demonstrating their gold medal-winning capabilities.
But both teams were too modest to claim they would be the ultimate winners.
"It's too early to say we will continue to be in the lead," Martinez said.
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