Print

Mail

wiki links

Taiwan has high hopes in sailing

Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee chief Thomas Huang presents an Olympic flag to the initial crew members of Taiwan's 49er sailing team. PHOTO: DAVID FRAZIER, TAIPEI TIMES

Taiwan's government yesterday launched a new sailing program with the aim of qualifying for the 2008 Beijing games and possibly the 2004 Athens games.

The 49er class of 4.9m-long skiffs was first introduced as an Olympic event at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

At that time the light weight and extremely high performance craft were already well on their way to becoming a new standard in small vessel sailing.

Five local sailors in their late teens and early 20s were introduced at yesterday's press conference as the athletes in the 49er sailing

program, which begins immediately.

This weekend the five will work with Australian Olympic gold medalist Mark Turnbull in Fulung. Then they're off to Sydney, Australia for two weeks of intensive training, followed by four weekends in Penghu.

The remainder of the year will see them globetrotting to participate in all eight 49er world cup events this year, the first of which will be held mid-May in Riva, Italy.

"Taiwan has made a full commitment through 2004 at least, and by that time the program will probably have built enough

momentum to keep going on its own," said Louie Hubbard of Destination Marketing, a British sports marketing firm working with Taiwan to produce this team.

One of the reasons for choosing the 49er class and putting the government's full support behind it was that China has never fielded a team in the category at any previous international competition.

It is believed that a full fledged effort would give Taiwan an edge in the cross strait race for Olympic qualification.

Local interest in 49er racing began last October, when top ranked contestants from all over the world came to Penghu to compete in the fist ever Penghu 49er Grand Prix.

Taiwan scrapped to put together two last minute entries in the race -- one of the doublehanded teams consisted of expatriates -- neither of which qualified for the finals.

But the race established Taiwan on the 49er world cup circuit, in which racers gain points to qualify for the Olympics.

Taiwanese officials also took the opportunity to buy two of the US$20,000-a-piece 49er boats from the races contestants and organizers.

Now for the new sailing program, they've enlisted the aid of an English coach, Alex Scoles, who will begin working with the team next month in Sydney.

"With the funding and opportunity these guys [Taiwan's new 49er sailors] have now, they should be ahead of everybody in China in 2008," said Hubbard.

Before the new 49er team can start dreaming of an Olympic berth however, they must first undergo a trial by fire, learning how to handle one of sailing's trickiest craft then competing against the best in the world only two-and-a-half months from now.

Initial training will begin on more forgiving and more stable 29ers, because as Hubbard said, "they'd get killed if you put them straight on a 49er."

But the sailors are optimistic.

"I know we'll have to work really hard," said Joe Wang, a 21-year-old who has previously only sailed the more straight forward Lasers. "But that's okay," he continued. "It's a rare opportunity."
This story has been viewed 1972 times.