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Check out our Qingdao image gallery of over 250
photos
Latest stories:
Photo: Ben
Ainslie takes gold in Qingdao (photo Francois Richard)
Medal race -
Ben
Ainslie makes history yet again
Video interview with
Guillaume Florent (in French)
Final quotes from sailors
A chat with the
race officer
Day seven -
Ainslie
eases into a useful lead
More photos added -
day
three
Day six - all racing postponed
More photos posted from
Day five -
Ainslie
eases out a useful lead
Photos from
day five
added to gallery
Day four -
Finn
sailors talk about the racing so far
More quotes added
Day three -
Ainslie
takes lead in Finns by smallest of margins
Gallery updated with photos by
Francois Richard
Day two:
Zach
Railey dominates dicey conditions
Best quotes from each day.
Zach under media pressure, by US Sailing (on
Sail-World)
Photos added -
day two
Finn news and interviews with Zach and Ben at
Sailjuice
Extensive gallery from Getty Images online
here
Day one:
Typical Qingdao day for Finns
Bob Fisher on Ben Ainslie
(on Sail-World)
Zach's final
video diary before racing commences
Ben Ainslie -
Unbeaten in the Finn since 2004
Gallery page
added
World number one talks about his
Olympic dream
Interview with
Zach Railey
Zach Railey's
video diary from Qingdao
Nachhatar Johal talks about his Olympic dream (on
Sail-World)
Latest
from Qingdao:
Thursday 14 August:
Lack of wind and a light rain kept the sailors
on shore all day until racing was postponed for the day at 16.00 local
time. This means that the three final qualification races will be sailed
on Friday 15 August before the medal race on Sunday. Friday's racing
starts one hour earlier at 12.00 local time.
Tuesday 12 August:
Lay day today. Some played golf, some
watched movies, some just relaxed. Some pics
here.
Thursday 7 August:
It was practice race day for the Finns and
Ynglings in Qingdao, but there wasn't much going on as the boats drifted
around for an hour or so in very little wind before finally being sent
home. Some
pictures are on the gallery page. However the optimistic forecast for
the coming days is ranging from 10 to 14 knots, so hopefully racing will
start on schedule on Saturday.
Tuesday 5 August:
Measurement is going well and Chief Measurer
Juri Saraskin is very happy with the way things are going. Contrasting
with some classes, most boats are going through in under an hour with no
problems. The Lamboley weight distribution tests have not picked up
anything yet, showing that the sailors have not really changed much in
their boats. Some of the sailors have brought some old Kevlar D2s out to
use, some have Cuban fibre sails and some are trying monofilm sails. Today
the wind was 8 to 12 knots, from 090 with a very strong tide. Virtually
all the sailors were out practicing. Tomorrow there is a forecast of about
2 knots less wind. In the past the predictions were for just a handful of
days with wind over 10 knots in the month of August. Already in the past
few weeks we are far ahead of that, so everyone is being quite optimistic
about good winds for the Games themselves. One theory is that because all
the factories are shut down and that pollution is much less, the reduced
smog has enabled the wind to develop. The city has really been dressed up
nicely to welcome all the sailors and in preparation for the opening
ceremony on Friday.
Sunday
2 August: The
wind was blowing fresh from shore in the morning and then started (as
forecasted by most meteo services) to decrease at about noon. in area A,
in front of OSC (Olympic Sailing Center) it came all day long from the
same direction, oscillating from 330 to 030 with avg speed of 6 kts. On
Course D and E (about 4.5 miles from OSC, and where the Finns will race)
it switched to see breeze. Since today measurement is on for the Finns.
Basically this is the reason why almost everybody kept on training
on course A today. Having the chance of getting quickly ashore for a rig
change is quite important for wiping doubts away. At roughly 3 to 4 pm we
had the maximum tidal flow: the floating fence was impressively
struggling with the flow pressure. Needless to say that it was important
to keep away from there.
Saturday 1 August: "Today it was
one very hot day, with plenty of humidity and mist, the wind did not break
through the Olympic racing field. The waves did. We had light wind avg 3-5
kts, with some puffs reaching 7 with more than one meter swell, chopped on
top especially close to the shore because of the rebound and big traffic.
Almost all sailors who went on the water today decided to sail in front of
the Olympic Sailing Center, so that course A was pretty crowded. The Finns
trained on the southern limit of the course and in the first upwind tests
we had to stop because of the floating barrier which fences the race area
from algae."
Wednesday 30 July: Michele Marchesini
writes from Qingdao, "The Olympic Sailing Center and
village opened on the 27th and all the sailors moved from Hin Hai Marina
to here. The OSC is very impressive and will state new higher standards
for the Olympicregatta. venue. Everything is five stars. Finn sailors here
at the moment are VEN NED ESP SLO FRA CAN USA POL IRL from what I could
see in the afternoon. Conditions are pretty tough though - tomorrow 15
knots expected with 2 metre waves, going down to 6 knots on August 2nd."
Wednesday 23 July:
more here
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IFA
2008 Olympic Micropanel
GOLD
- Ben Ainslie, GBR