Laser Radial Worlds- Xu wins, Railey goes home
by Rich Roberts and Sail-World on 5 Aug 2006
Xu Lija (CHN) is their first ever World Champion from China in an Olympic class Rich Roberts
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Lijia Xu from China has won the Womens Laser Radial Championship, sailed off Marina Del Rey, California.
In a sensational move, the defending champion Paige Railey was disqualified from the regatta for her third judged infringement of RRS 42 (Propulsion).
However that is not to take away from the achievement of Xu, who has won the first ever Olympic World Championship title for her country, which is also to be the host for the 2008 Olympics.
Xu's achievement will certainly turn a lot of heads in the sailing establishment as to what is happening behind the old Bamboo Curtain, and the rise of China as a sailing power.
Lijia Xu said, modestly, that her victory in the women's Laser Radial Worlds is not the first world sailing championship for a citizen of the Peoples Republic of China.
A girl much younger than her 19 years won back-to-back Optimist class titles at Qingdao, China in 2001 and Houston, Tex. in 2002. A girl named Lijia Xu.
But, she added, 'Maybe it's the first in an Olympic class,' which the Radial will be when Xu's career comes full circle to her native country for the 2008 Olympics.
Xu was hardly desperate as she sailed into the last 2 of 12 races with a 12-point lead over Germany's Petra Niemann and 25 on Belgium's Evi Van Acker, this year's European champion. Mexico's Tania Elias Calles Wolf won the first race in 9 knots of fairly steady wind to score second overall. Xu finished fourth for a mathematical wrap-up and called it a regatta.
Niemann won the second race to finish second overall. It was her third victory of the week to match the performance by sixth-place Sarah Steyaert of France.
No. 2-ranked Anna Tunnicliffe, 23, of Florida, led the event at mid-week until she nosedived to sixth Thursday. She said before Friday's racing, 'There are still two races to go and I'm already concentrating on turning on a better performance.'
Sure enough, she bounced back with two third places to finish in fourth place as the top American.
Top Briton in the women's event was Charlotte Dobson at 12th place. Penny Clark finished at 22nd, Laura Baldwin 30th and Alison Young at 42nd in the Gold final group.
While Xu sailed back to the host California Yacht Club, at the finish of her race, defending World Champion, Paige Railey didn't last that long.
The struggling 19-year-old star of the class from Florida - whom was alos European Champion in 2005 and is still No. 1 ranked in the world - drew her third yellow flag of the week from on-water judges for violating Rule 42, which concerns three basic types of kinetics to propel the boat: pumping the sail, sculling the rudder and - appropriately, the way her week had gone - rocking the boat.
When she was yellow-flagged for the latter on the first upwind leg of the first race, giving her a sweep of Rule 42 for the week, she was compelled to drop out, a stunning end to what may have been the toughest week of her young career.
Technically, with the Big DSQ, she wound up last among 45 Gold class finalists with all of her results purged from the scoring. Altogether, including the Silver fleet won by Hanne Hansch of Germany, there were 89 women from 31 countries.
Xu, a former Europe dinghy sailor, has been sailing Radials only eight months. At 75 centimeters (5-foot-9) and 68 kilos (150 pounds) she doesn't measure up to Yao but is about optimum size for a Radial in a range of conditions.
'But for the Olympics I may want to be lighter,' she said, because she expects light wind at Qingdao.
Her plan for the week was not primarily to win but to improve her ability. 'I was just trying to tell myself to have more stability to the boat, and trying to tell myself the only opponent is just myself,' she said.
Railey never really got going. A second in the week's first race was her best finish, although she was in contention until the next-to-last day. The final blow was her third yellow flag, which she did not dispute.
'Moving her body,' her mother, Ann Railey, said. 'That's the way the judges saw it, [so] that's how it is.'
There were only two third yellows waved in the regatta, the other directed at another American sailor, Brian Cottrel in the men's class. In all, there were 62 yellow flags, including 14 seconds. Jury chairman Paul Withers of Great Britain was one of two judges on the boat that made Friday's call. He dismissed any notions that Railey was targeted because of her prominence and, in fact, said he didn't know it was Railey until later.
'I know the name,' Withers said. 'I know she's a brilliant sailor, and I didn't know her sail number. My partner said, 'Oh, look at this one.' There was a boat to leeward of the others and the sailor was doing this [Withers leans back and forward repeatedly]. You could see the mast moving to windward in time with the body.'
In the Men's Radial event Fabio Pillar (BRA) was the winner ahead of Steven Le Fevre (NED) with Steven Krol (NED) third. Briton's Jon Emmett finished in fourth place with the same points as Krol.
Ben Paton of Briton finished in 15th position.
Women - Final overall leaders:
1 CHN 187373 Xu Lijia 42.0 5 4 6 (33) 3 2 3 3 11 1 4 (dnf)
2 GER 187321 Niemann Petra 44.0 5 1 4 (25) 1 (15) 15 6 2 4 5 1
3 MEX 187285 Elias Calles Wolf Tania 61.0 7 7 8 3 9 (23) 1 (28) 6 11 1 8
4 USA 187361 Tunnicliffe Anna 63.0 2 1 3 7 7 (9) 23 5 (32) 9 3 3
5 BEL 187294 Van Acker Evi 72.0 2 3 (25) 20 10 5 (22) 9 1 3 14 5
6 FRA 187323 Steyaert Sarah 83.0 1 23 (32) 1 6 1 2 2 19 (35) 6 22
7 SWE 187291 Soderstrom Karin 94.0 6 5 (9) 4 2 8 18 (26) 5 14 12 20
8 FRA 187314 De Turkheim Sophie 107.0 25 9 (29) 10 4 9 5 11 7 12 (34) 15
9 POL 187319 Szotynska Katarzyna 108.0 (11) 6 1 2 7 6 26 8 18 (28) 7 27
10 AUS 187398 Blanck Sarah 125.0 14 4 (29) 12 (35) 13 7 14 14 17 20 10
11 NZL 187318 Aleh Jo 125.0 4 (20) 1 1 9 16 (35) 18 10 27 27 12
12 GBR 187403 Dobson Charlotte 128.0 18 15 2 7 21 (29) 9 21 15 (24) 9 11
13 FIN 187399 Multala Sari 129.0 15 2 20 3 (34) 17 12 1 (bfd) 7 dnf 6
14 AUS 187394 Weir Krystal 131.0 19 14 (31) (31) 11 8 19 4 22 2 30 2
15 DEN 187308 Abrahamsen Trine Julie 133.0 14 21 (26) 21 16 7 10 25 (bfd) 5 10 4
16 CHN 187369 Shen Xiaoying 134.0 3 11 9 2 14 (29) 42 (43) 13 13 2 25
17 CRO 187316 Mihelic Tina 135.0 10 9 16 8 5 (22) 29 (31) 4 23 18 13
18 GRE 187331 Kravarioti Virginia 138.0 19 5 13 (28) 17 4 6 (32) 24 25 8 17
19 GBR 187302 Brewster Andrea 140.0 9 12 (22) 4 5 2 28 15 17 10 (38) 38
20 BLR 187379 Drozdovskaya Tatiana 141.0 10 13 14 15 (24) 10 11 16 3 (30) 19 30
Men - Final overall leaders:
1 BRA 175368 Pillar Fabio 56.0 16 12 5 1 4 9 (30) (27) 2 4 1 2
2 NED 158085 Le Fevre Steven 61.0 4 4 1 (40) 15 2 4 (31) 17 1 3 10
3 NED 174736 Krol Steven 78.0 2 1 (20) 14 3 (19) 7 19 14 7 10 1
4 GBR 180043 Emmett Jon 78.0 19 2 (25) 15 6 1 5 7 11 (22) 8 4
5 IRL 173086 Seaton Ryan 118.0 5 25 9 (45) 13 7 2 10 16 12 (32) 19
6 SIN 185328 Cheng Colin 122.0 26 13 11 4 29 4 (47) (57) 1 5 12 17
7 NZL 184685 Sandall James 141.0 25 18 (38) 2 30 18 (35) 33 5 2 5 3
8 AUS 166021 Palk Ryan 141.0 9 20 (21) 5 11 13 21 15 18 16 (41) 13
9 CAN 182411 Ramsay Luke 145.0 11 (34) (41) 27 23 15 1 2 20 14 26 6
10 NZL 176918 Junior Josh 147.0 21 5 24 9 (58) (raf) 9 13 41 11 9 5
11 MAS 172246 Muhamad Mohd Romzi 158.0 27 22 15 24 2 14 23 8 (45) 21 2 (35)
12 SIN 179815 Koh Seng Leong 159.0 12 3 33 6 24 8 18 4 (bfd) (61) 23 28
13 BER 157789 Kirkland Alexander 167.0 23 11 14 (49) 14 21 11 12 (32) 27 14 20
14 KOR 180157 Saugkyu Kim 172.0 28 (48) 10 28 12 5 15 5 (44) 18 29 22
15 GBR 182523 Paton Ben 176.0 39 10 35 36 27 6 3 6 6 8 (dnf) (dnf)
16 NZL 181880 Andrews Max 179.0 34 14 26 7 8 3 25 11 (42) (raf) 22 29
17 NED 17
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