With a third and a second finish in Sunday's two races of RS:X Women, Athens Olympic silver medalist Yin Jian of China moved up to second place overall at the Qingdao International Regatta.

This was a repeat of Athens Olympic Games as the reigning Olympic champion Faustine Merret of France took the top spot overall.

After a second place in Sunday's first race, Merret slipped to ninth place in race two. But according to the rule of discard, after five races each competitor can drop one of their race scores, Merret's ninth place was discarded and she established a four-point lead over Yin. Sun Limei of China dropped to third place overall.

"When the wind started it got even worse. We got more wind but it was more shifty. We had to look out for the change in wind direction all the time. I got a really bad start in race five but I caught back a few places. I was head to head with Chen Peina of China. Finally she won that race and I was second," said Merret.

"I started alright in the sixth race leading to the first mark and around the second mark it turned into downwind, then I fell behind."

She then talked about the Chinese sailors by saying: "I think they are really good in this kind of wind. They are always at the top of their game. It is interesting to see us competing against each other."

In RS:X Men, China's Fang Zhennan occupied the top spot. His teammates He Feng and Wang Aichen had fourth and fifth places overall. Chan King Yin of Hong Kong, 10th placer of 2006 European Championships, enjoyed a second place overall, two points behind Fang.

Another bullet for Ben Ainslie of Britain in the Finn class.

The fifth bullet has given him a 12-point lead over second placed overall Emilios Papathanasiou of Greece. Swedish Johan Tillander ranked third, four points behind Papathanasiou.

Ainslie said: "I was third or fourth at the first buoy mark, then I got around and was third at the bottom mark, then I got the lead at the top mark. Up to now this is the most challenging race and it was really hard to understand what was going on with the courses."

"The wind was quite steady once the race started. It was blowing at around 4 to 8 knots. It was really hard because there were a lot of ground swirls. Then the visibility got very bad. It was difficult to see the mark. I had to use the compass a lot so it was a good navigating practice," he added.

(Xinhua News Agency August 28, 2006)