Ü9]abaf_ÜFdqeha[ÜJYadaf_ÜI]_YllY 9]abaf_ Fdqeeha[ÜJYadaf__ÜI]_YllY 20 SATURDAY AUGUST 23, 2008 Qingdao hosts historic moments WHAT they are saying ... crowned in windsurfing on a medal in sailing at the Olym- from such a close distance with British wins most medals in a century; the home waters. pic Games by clinching the a clear visibility, thanks to the For an older athlete, Amid the screaming and silver in Laser Radial. audience breakwater, the fi rst- competing in this China tastes first sailing gold in Games flag waving of thousands of Fushan bay of Qingdao ever innovation in Olympic Chinese spectators, Yin, stand- Olympic Sailing Center also sailing history. Olympics was hard. QINGDAO: When British crew crown to be the third sailor in ing on the top of the podium and witnessed veteran sailors reap After watching two medal I’ve had many Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson Olympic history for that title. wrapped up with the national the fruits after years of hard races at the Qingdao Olympic of Star class brought home the Australian crew Elise Rechichi flag, couldn’t stop her tears training as well as rising stars Sailing Center and then attend- injuries in the past fi nal gold of the Beijing Olympic and Tessa Parkinson completed falling. set sail for their dreams. ing awards ceremonies, Jacques four years. I was Sailing Regatta, they not only double golds in the 470 fleets At the 2004 Athens Olym- Alessandra Sensini from Ita- Rogge, president of the Interna- able to persevere snatched the fourth gold for their with their teammates Nathan pics, a small collision with ly took the silver medal of RS:X tional Olympic Committee (IOC), country, but also made Britain Wilmot and Malcolm Page. another competitor in the 10th Women, which is the only color also a former Olympic sailor, was until now because a top Olympic sailing nation for Denmark pair Jonas Warrer round relegated Yin to a silver missing from this remarkable moved by what Qingdao has pre- I wanted to make the third time in a row. and Martin Ibsen were con- medal fi nish, just two agonizing 38-year-old woman’s collection sented to the world. The success also left British fi rmed winner of 49er gold po- points shy of a gold medal. of gold from the Sydney 2000 “What you have achieved is China proud in the sailors with their best Olympic sition after 19 hours of waiting Her teammate Xu Lijia also and bronze from Atlanta 1996 outstanding,” he said. Olympic Games that China is hosting. medal haul for 100 years, as it on a protest decision. made history for China, win- and Athens 2004. Xia Geng, mayor of Qingdao tied the record set at the Lon- The most historic moment, ning the country’s fi rst Laser The 46-year-old Santiago and also president of the Olym- YIN JIAN don 1908 Olympic Games, when however, belonged to the host Radial bronze, a class in which Lange from Argentina won the pic Sailing Commitee (Qingdao) China’s RS:X gold winner they also recorded four golds, nation. Europeans usually excel. bronze of Tornado in his fi fth of BOCOG, said the combined one silver and one bronze. For the fi rst time, China won These breakthroughs high- Olympics after Seoul 1988, At- efforts from government and This is just one of the historic the Olympic sailing gold, thanks lighted the improvement of the lanta 1996, Sydney 2000, and citizens managed to solve all the moments that Qingdao Olympic to windsurfer Yin Jian’s thrilling overall level of Chinese sailing, Athens 2004. His Tornado part- diffi culties that they were con- Sailing Center has witnessed performance in RS:X Women. and will be recorded in history ner Carlos Espinola also gained fronted during the preparation in the past 13 days, when 400 China has already won two forever, said Chinese sailing his third medal of bronze after for the Olympic Sailing Regatta. sailors from 62 countries and Olympic silver medals in wind- team captain Yao Xinpei. silver in Atlanta and bronze in “We have fulfi lled the prom- regions competed in 11 events surfi ng, with Zhang Xiaodong in China is not the only country Athens. ise made to the rest of the world I hope this is only of nine classes. Barcelona in 1992 and Yin Jian in that has made a breakthrough Off the water on the shore, and we have realized the dream Briton Ben Ainslie accom- Athens in 2004, but never gold. on the Olympic sailing podium. thousands of audience mem- of our nation,” he said. the beginning. plished his hat-trick gold mission It is also the first time Gintare Volungeviciute became bers also realized their dreams I hope I can get by claiming 2008 Olympic Finn that the host nation has been the fi rst Lithuanian to ever win of watching the Olympic sailing Xinhua better results in the future. I would like to see more Chinese youth involved in sailing. It will be better to have a bigger Chinese voice in international regattas. I think I was very fortunate to get bronze here in Qingdao. After 11 years of hardship, I fi nally got what I waited for. XU LIJIA China’s Laser Radial bronze winner The volunteers and people in Qingdao are amazing, so friendly and always kind. It would have been better to have more wind. Obviously, Qingdao does not have good wind some time. But we put on a great show. Britain’s medalists in sailing pose for a group picture outside the press center at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in Qingdao yesterday. Front row left-right: Paul MALCOLM PAGE Goodison, Sarah Ayton, Pippa Wilson, Olympic Manager for the British Olympic Sailing Team Stephen Park, Nick Rogers and Bryony Shaw. Back row left-right: Ben Men’s 470 gold winner of Australia Ainslie, Andrew Simpson, Iain Percy, Sarah Webb and Joe Glanfi eld. Reuters Talent supply keeps Games powers more I am overwhelmed with emotion. Britain ruling waves It’s a dream come than sports in Qingdao QINGDAO: Britain’s ability to by Ben Ainslie (Finn), Yngling true. The sailors produce sailors who leave no trio Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb stone unturned to win Olympic and Pippa Wilson and Laser have all been great By Zhao Ruixue also business. the opportunity to upgrade the gold is shown by their domina- sailor Paul Goodison. competitors and we Aggregate capital invested city’s infrastructure. Qingdao tion of Games regattas, the team In addition, Nick Rogers and all deserve to be up in Qingado since 2003 exceeds was named “China’s Excellent chief said. Joe Glanfi eld clinched silver in QINGDAO: Watching sail- $17 billion. The total value Business City” by the Chinese Britain, host of the 2012 the men’s 470 and windsurfer here. It is not very ing competitions, drinking of imports and exports have version of Fortune magazine in Games, won four golds, a silver Bryony Shaw won bronze. often that we get a Tsingtao beer and enjoying surpassed $100 billion and 56 2004 and 2005. It was listed as and bronze in the 11 events Yngling skipper Ayton, who urban coastal life is how many Fortune 500 fi rms have begun a “Golden City” for its sound sailed in Qingdao, fi nishing as now has two Olympic golds in lot of spectators, so I foreigners spend their time in operations in the city. investment environment by the leading sailing nation for her collection after triumph- thought it was very Qingdao during the Olympic Some 9.46 million contain- the World Bank in 2006. the third successive Games. ing in Athens with Webb and Sailing Regatta. ers were shipped through the Qingdao-headquartered “The secret of our success is Shirley Robertson, said the cool. “We like the city very much. It city’s port in 2007. Passenger domestic giants Haier Group, people, fi rst and foremost,” Royal foundations put in place had ANNA TUNNICLIFFE is well arranged. The seaside is numbers at its airport reached Hisense and Tsingtao Beer Yachting Association Olympic created a production line of Laser Radial gold winner of the US very beautiful. We are planning 7.87 million. Group have adopted globaliza- manager Stephen Park told a talented British sailors. to see the aquarium,” French Gross income from tourism tion strategies by joining with news conference on Friday. “It stems from sailing from sailor Julien Bontemps said. broke through the 40 billion yu- world-famous enterprises. More “We have a group of very a young age in Britain, our “The city is amazing. I love an ($5.8 billion) benchmark last than 150 companies from the city talented sailors who are federation does a fantastic Qingdao,” said Victor Kovalen- year, generated by the spending now have operations overseas. driven to ensure they leave no job all the way from grass- ko, head coach from Australia. of 30 million tourists. Its manufacturing industry stone unturned in the quest roots level all the way up to “The Olympics has not “I have been to China before. has also rapidly opened to private for Olympic gold medals. Olympics ... you are backed Winning an Olympic only brought great change to That was 15 years ago. Now investment, helping introduce “Those sailors are support- the whole way,” she said. gold medal means Qingdao but given the city an China has changed a lot. The increasing numbers of made-in- ed by a great group of coaches “Sailing is not just about opportunity to present itself to Chinese people, in my eyes, are China products to the world.