China set the running in Monday's opening races of Qingdao International Regatta 2006, claiming the finish gun in race 1 of both the women's keelboat event in the Yngling and the women's one person dinghy event in the Laser Radial.

 

Athens Olympian Shen Xiaoying whirled to a strong start, leading the opening race in the women's one person dinghy fleet, or the Laser Radial. Unfortunately, she did not finish race two and dropped down to 17th overall.

 

Her teammate Xu Lijia, who recently stormed the fleet to take the gold medal with a race to spare at the Laser Radial World Championships in the US, also had an eventful day.

 

She stumbled to finish in 20th position after race one and improved her game to win race two, en route to close the day's competition in 7th position.

 

Speaking modestly about the experience of the Chinese sailors in the fleet, Xu commented, "We have too many flaws in our technique. At the end of last year when we started this campaign, we knew absolutely nothing. We will continue to explore and adapt ourselves to the class, and gain experience through international regattas."

 

In womne's Keelboat, the Chinese trio of Song Xiaqun, Li Xiaoni and Zhang Chuanshuang, who had been sailing together for only five months, stunned the world by finishing top at the end of the day.

 

Chinese men have also presented some brilliance to catch up with their female counterparts.

 

He Feng and Fang Zhennan finished 2-3 in the men's RS:X, after Lukasz Grodzicki of Poland, a double World Youth Champion.

 

A total of 456 athletes from 40 nations have registered for the Qingdao event, which marks the largest sailing competition ever held in the city.

 

The first taste of Olympic competition on the waters in Qingdao giving further experience to all, the coming days will no doubt see the several Olympic medalists and World Champions in the fleet, making their challenge for the front.

 

(CRI August 22, 2006)