Sailing
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Warm welcome for Qingdao
QINGDAO finally arrived at her home port last week to a rapturous welcome from hundreds of local supporters and media representatives, who flocked to the Olympic Sailing Centre to greet the Chinese entry in the Clipper 07-08 Race.
Skipper Marcus Cholerton-Brown, from Ardleigh, and his crew were received like heroes as they disembarked their yacht and were led up the pontoon to meet invited dignitaries including Madam Zang, Executive Chairwoman of the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Committee and Clipper Chairman, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston.
As with the previous Qingdao welcome ceremonies, Marcus was presented with a ceremonial velvet clock with an embroidered cockerel to mark the Chinese year in which the skipper was born.
Each Qingdao crew member was presented with fresh flowers and given garlands made form seashells.
Following the end of an exceptionally difficult race for the Chinese team Marcus praised his crew on their performance: "The crew has put in bags of effort and should be proud of what they have achieved in particularly adverse conditions.
"They have all performed admirably and have never been found wanting when the going got tough."
He thanked the Olympic Sailing Committee for the lavish welcome they had laid on before spraying his crew with the ubiquitous bottle of Champagne.
The afternoon brought thousands of visitors to the Olympic Sailing Centre for the first of three open days to showcase the Clipper fleet and the new
facilities for the Beijing 2008 Olympics.
Entertainment was laid on in the form of stage shows with dancing and music including martial art influenced displays.
Despite not being able to look round the Clipper yachts which are still being cleaned after the last race, the visitors were able to see the teams get to work carrying out maintenance to the damage caused by the rough weather conditions during the race to Qingdao.
Race Director, Joff Bailey: "The crews will be particularly busy during this stopover carrying out repairs to the damage caused by the severe weather
conditions in the race from Singapore. It is imperative that the yachts are in top condition for the next leg of the race to Hawaii. The race across
the Pacific in the Clipper 05-06 Race proved to be one of the harshest in the history of the Clipper Race and the teams can't afford to take the risk
of setting off without completing all the maintenance onboard."
The winners of the last race was New York while the current overall race leader is Durban 2010 and Beyond.
10:01am Saturday 23rd February 2008
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