THE Elliott sailing yacht team, formed by Qingdao, is hoping to compete at the London Olympics in 2012.

    The team has recently started training in Europe and will attend the Elliott Race soon. At the end of this year, the team will have the chance to win their tickets to the London Olympics at the World Championships in Australia.

    Most members and coaches from the team were part of Sailing Yingling, a Chinese sailing team which finished eighth at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

    Team member Wang Ru said although both teams sailed in keelboat, there was a big difference between Elliot and Yingling. “In Yingling, several members sail together in the competition, while it is one-on-one competition for Elliot, more difficult and intense than Yingling,” Wang said.

    Qingdao formed the team last year in view of the London Olympics and it finished fourth at the Guangzhou Asian Games last year, which had surprised many foreign athletes.

    Their achievements were mainly due to the advanced training methods of foreign coaches.

    (Wang Yuanyuan, Wang Shulin)