Fernando Echavarri and Anton Paz of Spain won the Tornado (Multihull) gold medal on the final day of Sailing in Qingdao. Glenn Ashby and Darren Bundock of Australia took silver, Santiago Lange and Carlos Espinola of Argentina had bronze.

Via Beijing 2008

Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson of Britain were ahead of the pack and won the Men’s Star (Men’s Keelboat) at the Olympic Sailing Regatta, Qingdao, on 21st August 2008. Brazil landed silver, Sweden with bronze.

Via Beijing 2008

At Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center, Tom Ashley of New Zealand captured the Men’s RS:X (Windsurfer Men) title on 20th August 2008. Julien Bontemps of France got silver with 53 points and Shahar Zubari of Israel landed bronze with 58 points.

Via Beijing 2008

China’s first Olympic Sailing gold was attained by Yin Jian who was the Women’s RS:X (Windsurfer Women) champion. Italian Alessandra Sensini was second and Bryony Shaw from Great Britain took bronze.

Via Beijing 2008

Anna Tunnicliffe of the United States grabbed the Laser Radial (Women’s One Person Dinghy) gold medal on Tuesday, 19th August 2008. Gintare Volungeviciute of Lithuania came second, Xu Lijia of China took bronze.

Via Beijing 2008

Here’s the trailer of “Sailing to the Olympics” a documentary about the Brazilian sailing trio.

(Ok, in full disclosure, my younger sister is sailing on the Clearwater right now, so I’m becoming a big sailing fan!)

The no-more-algae Qingdao has witnessed the official opening of the Qingdao Olympic village on Sunday. 14 sailing teams including Japan, Brazil, Spain and China have checked in the Olympic village. Everyone is pleased with the services and facilities provided.

Decorated with Chinese paper cuts, water paintings and kites, the dwelling district for the Olympic sailors has special display room for folk culture, where craftsmen perform Chinese traditional arts like sugar painting, paper cutting and metal sculpting.

It also has a Chinese painting learning area where athletes and visitors can learn calligraphy. They can also taste a special Qingdao tea in the tea ceremony area and relax in the Chinese massage room.

“The service here is fantastic. Every detail is impressive. The volunteers are perfect,” said Lilian Fiedler, logistic official of Brazilian Olympic sailing team, whose 21 staff have checked in the Olympic village.

I want to learn calligraphy.

Via Xinhua

It looks like the algae has been cleared from Qingdao, the Beijing Olympics venue for sailing.

Video link

The mutant seaweed which has formed along the coastlines of Qingdao, the sailing venue of the Beijing Olympics, may become obstacles to the competition’s windsurfers if it is not cleared by August. Instead of fishing, the fishermen of Eastern China fish on the seaweed now, before we have Seaweed Sailing.

The seaweed is another blow to the Chinese organisers, who boasted recently of the technological advances they were introducing to the sailing venue to combat the meteorological challenges at Qingdao. These include China’s first vehicle-borne 鈥渄oppler鈥� radar, used in police speed guns, which will provide information on wind speed and the direction of the tides.

I honestly think by August, everything will be as clear as the water.

Image & Via: Times Online

Sailors dread one thing in sailing competitions and that is…no wind. For Beijing Olympics sailing competition that will be taking place in Qingdao, China, the officials have made a point to keep the sailors happy by simply changing the competition schedule if necessary.

Zang Aimin, Executive Vice-President of the Sailing Committee of Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, said they have studied the weather in recent years in order to take measures to ensure competition to go smoothly.

No wind, no medal, eh?

Via China Daily