Good news went back for China from the Qingdao International
Regatta as in both men's and women's RS:X the host country had nice
positions.
Also, Saturday was a good day for the regatta as it started with
a wind of 6 knots, which set sailing all the eleven events.
In the RS:X Men, Zhou Yuanguo of China moved up to pace the
race, finishing first in both race 3 and race 4, and came in the
first place overall.
On the women's part, China's Yin Jian, silver medalist in
Athens, finished third overall. Yin performed quite stably since
the competition started last Thursday. She finished second in race
3 and fourth in race 4.
Iker Martinze and Zabier Fernadez from Spain, the defending
Olympic sailing champion in 49er, kept their advantage in
Saturday's races.?
The Spaniards did not perform well in race 3 as they finished
15th, but they were back in form to finish first in race 5 and
eighth in race 6. They still ranked first overall.
"The 1st race was not so good, we came in 15th," said Martinze.
"We made a mistake on the first wind (went up the wrong side). It
was tough to get up speed."
"In the second race we caught some great upwind. It was great to
come back on top after placing 15th in the 1st
race.??
"In the third race, we didn't take much risk at the start. A lot
of boats were faster than us.
"There was good upwind. At the windward mark we were probably
13th or 14th, and at the leeward mark we caught up to eighth," she
said. "It was too hard to catch up anymore so we finished at
eighth.
"Overall, we're happy with our performance today."
Britain also did a good job on Saturday. Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb
and Pippa Wilson still ranked atop after four races in Yngling; Ben
Ainslie kept his advantage in Finn that he finished first
overall.
The top one sailor in Laser was also British. Paul Goodison
performed quite well to finish first in race 3 and 10th in race
4.
Flavio Marzzzi and Christoph Christen from Switzerland beat
world champions Xavier Rohart and Pascal Rambeau from France to
finish first overall in Star. The French came into the second.
Ai Kondo and Naoko Kamata from Japan finished first after five
races in 470 Women. As for 470 Men, Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page
from Australia came in the first after four races.
In Laser Radial, Jo Alen from New Zealand came in first after
four races. Roan Hagara and Hans Peter Steinacher from Austria, the
Olympic gold medalist in Athens and Sydney, ranked first after
three races in Tornado.
?
(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2007)