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Olympic Sailing Venue Opening Ceremony
(QINGDAO, August 4) -- The Olympic Sailing start-off ceremony will take place in the Qingdao Olympic sailing center park starting at 7:00 p.m. on August 9. Officials in charge of planning the event promise that it will be, "the largest, most organized, most artistic, most exciting and most beautiful ceremony ever," as reported by the Qingdao Morning News.
The ceremony is will be made up of three parts: an enactment of "Raising the Sails in Qingdao", a performance of "Love in the Seas" and a brilliant firework display at 10 p.m. to end the ceremony. Some 2,000 actors will participate in the ceremony, along with 20 Qingdao singers.
Coen de Koning and Jeroen van Leeuwen win 2008 Nacra Championships
On Sunday August 3rd, Coen de Koning and Jeroen van Leeuwen won the 2008 Nacra Championships. The flying Dutchmen took the last three bullets on the final racing day. Xander Pols and Tjiddo Veenstra (NED) won silver, followed by Team Boskalis Sascha Larsen and Christa van Helden (NED). Their battle for podium positions was full on, as they were on equal points going into the last race. A fleet of 29 competing teams enjoyed three days of medium to strong wind conditions off the Belgian coast of Duinbergen at the Royal Belgian Sailing Club.
“It was great”, said helmsman Coen de Koning while rigging down their Nacra Infusion. Today, they had a perfect second start on port tack and took the lead by far. De Koning: “Sascha wanted to do the same in the third race and we tried to avoid that by closing the gap, but we hit the pin end and had to take a penalty turn.” Meanwhile, Pols and Veenstra were smoking to the top mark. De Koning and Van Leeuwen went to the left to make up for their loss: “I saw a wind shift to the left and decided to tack earlier to anticipate, which worked out well. Also because many people over stood the mark.” The Dutchmen rounded the upwind buoy in second position and overtook Pols and Veenstra on the second run. De Koning: “We are absolutely happy with our results. This season’s focus was on the F18 Worlds. After winning the title, the pressure was off and it was mentally hard to stay focussed on other events.” According to Jeroen van Leeuwen, they are now aiming for the highest podium finish at the Dutch F18 Nationals in September.
2008 Nacra Championships Expect 45 On Starting Line
Duinbergen / Belgium, July 31 2008 -- With one day to go, the organization of the 2008 Nacra Championships expects about forty to fifty entries. Twenty-six teams, representing seven countries, signed up so far. The newly crowned F18 World Champions Coen de Koning and Jeroen van Leeuwen (NED) will be present as well. From Friday August 1st until Sunday Augustus 3rd, the catamaran sailors will compete for the Nacra titles in three classes based on the ISAF rating. Racing takes place on the North Sea along the Belgian coast of Duinbergen (Knokke), with the Royal Belgian Sailing Club as host. A maximum of twelve races are scheduled. The weather forecast looks promising with a breeze of 13-17 knots from the southwest.
“I am happy with the process”, said Gunnar Larsen from Nacra Europe. “Our goal is to revive the ‘Nacra feeling’ of the nineties. In those days, you really did not want to miss any Nacra event.” Although it is about the competition on the water, Larsen emphasizes the significance of the pleasure onshore: “We like people to enjoy their time on the beach and on the course. Drinking a beer in the evening is as important as the battle around the cans next day.”
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