Broken Balls delay equipment draw

The Organising Authority recruited the help of the China national lottery board today to help make the equipment draw - for RS:X windsurfers for the men and women, and the Laser and the Laser Radial, men and women, which is all supplied by the host city - this morning in the beautiful administration centre here at the Olympic Sailing Venue. Though by the time they got half way through I think they wished they hadn't!

Because there were more boats and boards (as in windsurf boards) to be allocated to the various national teams than there are balls in the normal lottery draw a special set of balls each with numbers on had been provided. However, the specification of these special balls was obviously different from the normal ones, as after a few cycles of ball picking the lottery machine ground to a halt with a broken ball stuck in the exit chute.

Hurriedly a replacement ball was found and the number of its deceased cousin written on it by hand, by the overseeing representative from ISAF (International Sailing Federation). This happened a second time, and the organisers got more and more nervous. They had adopted this new approach of draw replacing the traditional form where each competitor approaches the stage to make their own draw tombola style.

All those present thought that the traditional format should be used in future; none of this fancy lottery machine malarkey. Hope the sole representative, LOCOG - London 2012 - was taking notes!

CHN Team prepare to move to Olympic Village

Today was uniform day. Each member of the Chinese Olympic Sailing Team was provided with a suit case of items, including; half a dozen shirts, two dress shirts, a track suit, a blazer, slacks, dress belt, dress shoes, tie/scarf, toiletry bag, back-pack, duffel bag, sun glasses, 6 pairs of socks, one (!) pair of underpants, water bottle, shoe horn, two pairs of sandals, a pair of trainers, two caps, a dress hat, and, most important of all, the emblem of the Chinese Olympic Team.

Tomorrow is a very proud day for the team - they will be the first team to be welcomed on the first day of the formally opened Olympic Sailing Venue and Olympic Village here in Qingdao. It is a privilege for me to be invited to join them. It may seem strange that I am lining up with a team not of my nationality. Sport is increasingly international, even global, in terms of its support personnel - here we have Australians coaching the SIN team, Americans coaching the GER team, and even Brits coaching the RUS team. Who would have foreseen that during the depths of the Cold War?

May be Olympic sport is the great unifier that the IOC hopes it would be ......

Last day for the Olympic Development Squads

Well with a mixture of sadness and relief the CHN Team Radial Olympic Development Squad had their last training day here in Qingdao, China. Their Head Coach, Liu Xiaoma, ably assisted by his assistant coaches and the physical trainer have had a full programme of training over the last few weeks.

Each member comes from the Provincial Sailing Teams spread around the country. So whilst the members were looking forward to getting back home after many weeks away they were also sad about the end of this phase in their careers.

The hope is that the work they have done will have helped prepare the CHN Team Radial representative, Lijia Xu, to the highest level possible. They certainly pushed her right up to the last moments of the last day!

Also, the experience, knowledge and skills they have developed will be useful for their Provincial Sailing Teams, and the plan is that this will provide for an even more solid foundation for the next Olympic cycle. Next stop Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy in 2012!

Qingdao is getting ready

These building posters are amazing. You can see them from most view points in the city and out on the water in the Field Of Play, as it is called. Can't really see Weymouth or Portland having the same impact!

Wet 'n' wild on Course Area A today!

The CHN Team and Team GBR were the only boats on the water this afternoon (well a couple of Paraguay Lasers - at least that's what it said on their shirts, and a NED 470 came to join in, later). With winds up to 30 knots and 2.5 metres waves it was tough going.

By the afternoon the wind had moderated to around 20-25 knots but the waves were just as big. The CHN team Laser/Radials worked hard and were joined by a couple of GBR Stars, see below.

When it rains here, it pores. I am sure the rain drops are bigger than in the UK! The good thing is that it is warm so its not so bad but having been out here for almost four weeks, today was the coldest I've been.

Advice to the Olympic Family

Looking for some relaxation? Longing for some Western culture? Well the Internet can solve your problem; go to www.tudou.com its a site in the Chinese language a bit like iPlayer.

Once you are in the site scroll to the bottom of the home page and there is a search field, type in the name of the film you want to watch and press return, or the button on the right hand side of the search field. The site then searches for the film you want and comes up with a set of links with thumbnails.

This is the tricky part; for one film you will see there are several parts - the parts are roughly 20 sections of a film - if you hover the cursor over the title of the thumbnail, just below, the description in Chinese language and, usually, the English language, will appear and you can find 'Part 1/6', say. Click on the part you want and another window opens after a few seconds with the film running.

You can go to full-screen mode, pause, and re-play.

If you are really clever with the Chinese language then once you have done your search look at the margin and you can, I am told, choose an uninterrupted version of the film - but my Chinese is not up to that just yet!

'No country for old men'!

No wind here today, so it was back to the books and documents for me. The Yngling 'girls' invited me to join them for their gym session this afternoon; of course it was just a trick to get their revenge - I've been giving them a hard time over the last couple of weeks on the rules. Had them doing tests, attending lectures, answering tests, learning the 'play book' by heart, and all the rest.

So, here was their chance; it started easy with 20 mins. on the rowing machine to warm up, then on to some power walking and running on the tread-mill, some flexing and a few reps on the weights, and then ...... my first 'spinning class! This was an hour of bike riding but not like any bike riding I've done before; the bike is stationary and has just one wheel at the front (bit like a fly-wheel). You can adjust the fly-wheel for various settings of difficulty by applying a friction device. And away you go!

I think the class instructor was certifiable, literally. Shouting to be heard above the beat of the 'motivating' music he would bark instructions at the class - I had to watch what others did, as my Chinese is still rather poor. The class was about thirty people and we must have lost a couple of litres each in sweat - not a nice job to clear up that lot.

My body; well I think it survived though I'll know more in the morning! At dinner I gently enquired whether the team did that every day, 'oh no' came the enthusiastic reply 'the class is only on Tuesdays' - thank goodness for that, I have seven days to recover!

Oppies show Olympic competitors how its done!

As the typhoon continues to hammer Taiwan with heavy winds and flooding the tail provided the Oppy training squad, here in the Sailing City of Qingdao, CHN, with a taste of fresh conditions - unusual for the bay. We recorded a persistent 20 knots with guests of 25 knots whilst we were out training today - speed testing with the RS:X competitors (Windsurfer class at the Olympic Sailing Regatta).

The Oppy sailors seemed to enjoy their rare opportunity in the otherwise light wind bay of Qingdao. The city has invested heavily in developing a new generation of sailors; they have purchased a thousand Optimist dinghies and are training hundreds of coaches in a quest to create momentum in the growth of sailing as a sport, and eventually have sailing as major industry as in other countries.

Lots of 'zones' here in Qingdao, CHN

Well I am all 'zoned' out. The day has been spent reviewing documents that govern the Olympic Sailing Regatta, and there are rather a lot of them. One term keeps coming up; we have a 'Restricted Zone' - for coach boats to stay out of, we have a 'Coach Boat Zone' - for coach boats to stay in (under certain circumstances), we have an 'Exclusion Zone' - which identified the Field Of Play, FOP, and its five Course Areas (A, B, C, D and E), of course we have the 'Two-Length Zone' - as in the Racing Rules of Sailing, Definitions, and we have 'Medal Zone' - which refers to Olympic competitor who might be considered prospects for the top three places for he event.

According to www.dictionary.com there are five definitions of the term 'zone'. I think the one that applies here is:

zone –noun

any continuous tract or area that differs in some respect, or is distinguished for some purpose, from adjoining tracts or areas, or within which certain distinctive circumstances exist or are established.

So now you know ..............

Aussies 'fly the flag' in Qingdao Bay, China

On Sunday - not a day of rest here in China - the Yngling teams all joined forces, well the ones that found the right course (there was confusion about the instructions from the coaches whether the practice races were being held in Area E or Area A. It was meant to be Area A, just off the Olympic Sailing Venue where in a couple of weeks time the various Medal Races will be held). The AUS coaches took the lead by being the Race Committee, using a rather unusual Warning Signal, see above.

Fife class on the Menai Straits

Coralie, my Fife One-Design, was built in 1928 on a design by William Fife drawn in 1926. The Fife One-Design class is raced extensively on the Menai Straits in North Wales, GBR, at the Royal Anglesey Yacht Club.

The racing programme for 2008 can be found on the club's site at:

http://www.royalangleseyyc.org.uk/Race%20Programme.pdf

Why was the beach wet? Because the sea weed!

There has been a massive operation here in Qingdao Bay to clear the sea weed that has bloomed in recent weeks. Course areas A and B are being kept clear by fishing boats and a line has been floated across some of the bay entrance to prevent further invasion by the sea weed.

Local experts has said that the sea weed is now in its desendance and will likely disapate over the next few days

Hello from Beijing!

Am having to move my blog site as I can't get through The Great (Fire ) Wall of China! So it will be here for the moment ........