QINGDAO: The world's best sailors have spoken of the nautical challenges they face and their own chances a year before the Beijing Olympics at its final test event, the 2007 Qingdao International Regatta.

Three-time men's 470 class world champion Malcolm Page rated his team's chances as highly as their more-fancied British counterparts.

"The British team is obviously a very good team; it is ranked No 1 in the world, " the 2004, 2005 and 2007 No 1 from Australia told China Daily.

"Lucky for Australia, we are ranked No 2, we are very close.

"On a personal level, in my class, our British counterpart Nick Rogers is very good he was successful to win a silver medal from Athens; he knows how to do it.

"But we have been more successful than him at the world championship level in winning three world championships in the last ten years, so it will be a very close battle.

"Our chances of bringing home some medals from this championship are quite high."

Page said getting used to the conditions was his and his teammates' main priority.

"At the same time, winning this regatta is not our prime focus; our prime focus will be to learn more about the conditions, to work out what we need to win next year," he said.

"I'm happy for Nick to win this year."

Tom Slingsby, Australia's 23-year-old Laser Champion, said he arrived two weeks before the 2007 regatta after unfavorable weather conditions thwarted his Olympic preparations last year.

"Last year we took ninth, and that was probably one of my worst events in two years," Slingsby said.

"I found the conditions in Qingdao very challenging, with light winds, tropical water and a lot of current.

"Last year we had four races abandoned because we could not get onto the starting line. I've never been unable to cross the starting line because of too much current in my entire life.

"That's why I'm here early this year, I'm here two weeks before the event starts, to prepare myself more and more for the event, so I'm just trying to learn about the conditions as much as I can and I hope I'll improve my place and hopefully get on the podium."

The tight teamwork of British Yngling trio Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson, who won gold at the 2007 ISAF Worlds, is the product of a little tinkering.

"Our only goal is to win gold in Beijing," Sarah Ayton declared at Saturday's press conference.

At the 2004 Athens Olympics, Shirley Robertson, Sarah Ayton and Sarah Webb won the Yngling gold medal.

Shirley Robertson has since been replaced by Pippa Wilson.

"Sailing in Yngling for three girls is tough work," Ayton continued.

"We've been always training hard. We changed the structure of the team all for the sake of winning the Beijing Olympics.

"It also takes a long time to find the right partners.

"Our team changes have worked well.

"We've been up at the top in the last three years.

The British rate Chinese sailors a strong chance to win gold after finishing behind them at last year's Qingdao Regatta.

"The Chinese Yngling team is very competitive," Ayton said.

"They are well trained in Qingdao waters and have no problems like adapting to race conditions.

"These are their great advantages.

"They will put up a good fight at the games."

Frenchmen Xavier Rohart and Pascal Rambeau, 2005 Star World Champions and 2003 ISAF World Champions, intimidate rivals from across the English Channel with their stature.

"My British counterparts call me 'Big Frog', you know, British men gave Frenchmen a nickname 'Frog', because I am big," Rohart told reporters after his arrival in Qingdao.

"We are well prepared for the regatta and will try our best to win the championships this year," added Rambeau.

At last month's Cascais World Championships, Rohart and Rambeau finished second to Brazilian duo Robert Scheidt and Prada Bruno.

"We would probably have turned it around in the last round, which, however, was cancelled because of the weather, so we hope to remedy the pity in Qingdao this time. " Rohart said.

"We didn't get satisfying results last year in the Qingdao Regatta, so we have been long prepared for this year's Regatta, hoping to make some breakthrough," added Pascal after he and his crewmate had trained in a French bay where conditions resemble Qingdao's.

Rohart, 39, said conditions and sailing knowledge would again be instrumental during this year's regatta.

"We want the gold, but nobody can predict the final results of sailing," he said. "In sailing there is a No 1 but never a world record.

"Sailing is a tiring sport and it usually takes one or two hours to race per day.

"But the physical element is not the total factor for winning the game, for there is also strategy, tactics, weather, experience, which make the sport more attractive.

"In fact, I am not yet the oldest sailor."

A former Finn-class athlete, Rohart represented France at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics but failed to win a medal.

In 2001 a coach suggested he team up with Rambeau in a Star boat, a suggestion that paid dividends almost immediately.

After just two weeks, the duo won the 2003 ISAF Sailing World Championship before winning bronze at the Athens Olympics the following year and gold at the 2005 worlds.

"Our main aim is still to familiarize ourselves with the conditions like weather, venue and accommodation this year," Rohart said.

"Next year we will arrive here beforehand and train for the Olympics.

"With a lot of preparations, we hope to win the gold in Beijing Olympics."

(China Daily 08/13/2007 page6)