Winners are Grinners in Qingdao.

Winners are Grinners in Qingdao.

An elated Shahar Zubari (ISR) phone home just minutes after winning the Bronze medal in the RS:X Mens  Richard Gladwell
Welcome to Sail-World.Com's Olympic newsletter for Day 12 of the 2008 Olympic Sailing Regatta.

With now just one day left in the 2008 Olympic Regatta in Qingdao, the parties have all but started.

Certainly the New Zealanders will be hard pressed to restrain themselves after they won a Gold Medal today – even though they have sailors racing tomorrow. For the more reserved Chinese, there will no doubt be a quiet drink, or two.

Both Gold Medals are significant.

For the Chinese it is their first Gold Medal in sailing, and gives them two medals from this Olympics – a bronze in the Laser Radial lifting them into a new place in the sailing world.

New Zealand has a long established Olympic tradition, which has struggled to maintain its gleam in recent years with the double focus for its sailors of the America's Cup, both for its own team and others, and the fact that so many of its top sailors are professionals for a myriad of international campaigns.

Start of RS:X Mens Medal Race - 2008 Qingdao  Ingrid Abery © Copyright

After failing to win a medal at the Athens Olympics, along with its neighbour Australia, both went through a considerable soul-searching exercise.

Australia have hauled themselves up by the bootstraps, winning two Gold medals so far, with a good prospect of a third in the form of current world champions, Darren Bundock and Glenn Ashby competing in the Tornado class tomorrow.

Jian Yin (CHN) celebrates immediately after crossing the finish line to win the RS:X Womens Gold medal  Richard Gladwell

New Zealand came into this regatta with high hopes, and a tough selection policy – probably the harshest of any country competing – declining to send crew in two classes in which the Kiwis had qualified.

While several of their team made good starts to the regatta for various reasons they fell to the vagaries of Qingdao, as so many others have done. However their sailing medal drought is broken, with Tom Ashley's superb win under tremendous pressure this afternoon.

Tomorrow will see the Last Waltz, which will hopefully be more of a flypast, for the Tornado class - as the multihull is due to be dropped for the 2012 Olympics.

An emotional Jian Yin (CHN) soon after the end of the RS:X Womens - Medal Race  Richard Gladwell
If the predicted seabreeze arrives, the Tornado medal race should be most spectacular event of this Olympiad – even though it is probably only a two or three horse race for the Gold medal.

All would hope that organisers give the Tornado crews a chance to stretch their legs, and not restrict the fleet to a 19 minute two leg event that was the lot of the RS:X Mens today.

An elated Tom Ashley on the winners podium at the RS:X Mens Medal ceremony Qingdao Olympic Regatta  Richard Gladwell

However today's was China's day. As host for this Olympics they took on a huge task, in a difficult environment, and have been found wanting in several areas.

But today all that was forgotten in the emotion and joy of their first Gold Medal and the scenes on the water and back in the Olympic harbour will remain with all, for a very long time.

Good Sailing!

Richard Gladwell
Sail-World Olympic Editor

Ashley wins RS:X Gold for New Zealand
Richard Gladwell, Sail-World,
Tom Ashley has just won the RS:X Gold medal at Qingdao. Stay tuned to Sail-World.Com for pictures, audio and reports of the race, medal ceremony as these take place. Sail-World NZ was on the water for the race and has exclusive photographs. We are reporting live on site from the international media centre.... [more]

Images of Qingdao: Medal Race - RS:X Womens
Richard Gladwell,

Images from the Medal Race of the RS:X Womens Event, which took place off the Olympic breakwater off Qingdao this afternoon. <:img Alt_IMG_0416.jpg :>... [more]

Windsurfing bronze for jubilant Shaw in Qingdao
Lindsey Bell,
Bryony Shaw won Great Britain's first ever women's windsurfing medal clinching RS:X bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in Qingdao today (Wednesday 20 August). Speaking immediately after the race an overcome Shaw said: 'I'm just so, so happy, it was such a tough race and has been such a tough week and I'm just so happy, it's the best thing in the world... [more]

Letter from Qingdao: The crowds come to Fushan Bay

Today was a memorable day on Fushan Bay with the Medal Races for the RS:X Womens and Mens events being sailed in front of the breakwater for the Olympic Harbour. The day dawned with the racecourse a glassy calm and for a while it seemed as though racing would not be possible, However a building easterly developed into a nice seabreeze by mid morning only to fade by the start of racing which got un... [more]

Olympic Sailing Day 12 - All Classes Results Table
TRW,
Olympic Sailing Day 12 - All Classes Results Table... [more]

Ingrid's Images from Qingdao Olympics
Rob Kothe,
Lovely Ingrid Abery came our aid today, lending us a camera body, when we were one down. She's been eveywhere on the courses and dockside. Here are some of her images today. There are more at www.hotcapers.com... [more]

Sailjuice - Two great Medal Races
Andy Rice - Sailjuice,
The RS-X Medal Races were real nailbiters today. They took place in the brightest, sunniest conditions we've seen in Qingdao. Not quite enough to get the boards planing though, so plenty of wind whacking going on.... [more]

Olympic Sailing: Last day for USA Stars Tornados
Derby Anderson,
USA Stars and Tornados sailed three races today in gorgeous weather. In eight to fifteen knots and sunshine they got their races started on time at 11:00 a.m. Unfortunately, the results were not so sunny for the two American boats. They were both unable to qualify for tomorrow's top ten medal race,... [more]

Sailing and Television – an unholy alliance
Bob Fisher,
Is the harvesting of the share of television rights monies by ISAF too high a price to pay for the incursion of Great God Television into our sport? While it does provide the major share of the income of the international federation, the price that is paid for it by the interference into the Olympic regatta would appear questionable.... [more]

Brits lead Olympic Sailing Medal Count
Rob Kothe,
The Beijing Olympics 2008 British sailing campaign has swept all before them. Seems like the luck of the lottery draw for the small island nation, who could add another medal in the Star Class with Iain Percy and Andrew 'Bart'Simpson currently second going into tomorrow's Medal Race.... [more]

Images of Qingdao: RS:X Mens Medal Ceremony
Richard Gladwell, Sail-World,
Images of Qingdao: RS:X Mens Medal Ceremony... [more]

Light and Scheidt
Bob Fisher,
On a day when the breeze grew progressively lighter, Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada sailed an impressively consistent three races in the Stars. The 2007 world champions hold third position overall after gaining ten points on Xavier Rohart and Pascal Rambeau of France on the day to lead the French by four points.... [more]

Olympic Sailing Aussies to tussle for Tornado Gold
Australian Sailing Team Media,
'Tomorrow's a big day - we're just going to go for it and try to win' -The Australian Tornado Crew... [more]

Sailing Olympics Qingdao - Day 12 Completed
Sail-world.com/uk,
Day 12 of the sailing at Qingdao and Jian Yin took a first Gold for China in the sailing - Sensini of Italy the Silver and Britain's Bryony Shaw the Bronze in the RS:X. In the Men's RS:X Medal Race, Tom Ashley of New Zealand took the Gold. Silver went to Julien Bontemps of France and the Bronze to Shahar Zubari of Israel. Britain's Nick Dempsey finished fourth overall... [more]

Bronze for Bryony Shaw in Qingdao
Lindsey Bell,
Bryony Shaw has won Great Britain's first ever women's windsurfing medal clinching RS:X bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games in Qingdao today. Jian Yin of China finished the race in third place to claim gold with 39 points, Alessandra Sensini of Italy taking silver with 40 and Shaw winning bronze with 45.... [more]

Olympics Results Womens RS:X Jian Yin (CHN) Gold
Rob Kothe,
Olympics Day 12 Womens RS:X Medals Jian Yin (CHN) Gold, Alessandra Sensini (ITA) Silver, Bryony Shaw (GBR Bronze. Athens silver medallist, China's Yin Jian won Gold in the RS:X Women at the Olympic Sailing Regatta in Qingdao today, winning her country's first ever Olympic sailing gold.... [more]

Kiwi Quotes - Tom Ashley and Carl Williams
Jodie Bakewell-White,
Tom Ashley and Carl Williams comment on their racing yesterday in the RS:X windsurfer and Star class respectively. Tom Ashley: 'Tough day today!' 'Very light, VERY shifty offshore breeze for the last fleet race of the Olympics.'... [more]

Olympics Tunnicliffe grabs moment, takes control
Dean Brenner Team Leader US Olympic Sailing Team,
On this walk, I'm doing my very best to convey a sense of calm and cool that she can feed off. I want to be that rock for her, that cool influence that makes it all a little easier. And we are walking... and walking... and I realize that neither of us is actually saying anything. Total silence. Awkward moment......... [more]

PredictWind - very light airs for racing Wednesday
Sail-World and PredictWind.Com,
PredictWind forecasts only very light winds in Qingdao today, Wednesday, increasing substantially for the next two days. Today at the Olympic regatta, racing is scheduled for the RS:X Mens and Womens classes (Medal Races) and fleet racing in the Star and Tornado classes, who are due to race their Medal races on Thursday... [more]

Britain's sailors poised for more Gold
Lindsey Bell,
Paul Goodison's Gold was Britain's fourth sailing medal of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games with Ben Ainslie and then the Yngling trio winning gold on Sunday and Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield clinching 470 men's silver Monday. But that tally could increase even further Wednesday as both Nick Dempsey and Bryony Shaw go for gold in the RS:X windsurfing men's and women's classes... [more]

Images from Qingdao: RS:X Mens Medal Race
Richard Gladwell, Sail-World,
Images from the RS:X Mens Medal Race raced this afternoon in Qingdao, with the Gold medal won by Tom Ashley (NZL with Julien Bontemps (FRA) taking the Silver and Shahar Zubari (ISR) the Bronze... [more]

2008 Olympics Qingdao
09/08/08
Welcome to Sail-World.Com's coverage of the 2008 Sailing Olympics in Qingdao, China...
For more details and news for this event, go to:
http://www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?SEid=1013

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