Sailors aim to stay lean for the light winds, as they feel out the Qingdao venue

WITH three weeks to go to the Olympics, Singapore's sailors are putting the final touches to be in peak form for the Beijing Games.

For the past week, the six-member Olympic team have been training up to seven hours a day in Qingdao, the venue for the Olympic sailing competition in eastern China's Shandong province.

They are the first among Singapore's 25-member Olympics team to get a first-hand feel of the Games conditions.

Training intensity and motivation run high, as body weights are carefully monitored and kept low.

Many of the sailors have had to shed the extra mass they put on over the past 18 months, which was needed to contend with the strong wind conditions during the Olympic qualification races in Europe and Australia.

Qingdao, with light winds similar to Singapore's, favours leaner figures.

'We're still in quite a hard phase of training,' said team manager Peter Logan yesterday over the phone from Qingdao.

'The team are excited. They realise that we've got a lot of hard work to do to reach our peak.'

Another six Olympic squad teammates are there with the sailors, serving as sparring partners to help ensure that the team maintain their competitive edge.

A typical day begins with with 90 minutes of hard physical training before breakfast, and then heading to the Olympic sailing centre by 10.30am for up to four hours of on-water training.

After lunch and some rest, the sailors fit in a core training session until dinner time.

There is no letting up for the six sailors, all of whom will be making their Olympic debuts except for Laser Standard sailor and team captain Koh Seng Leong, 24.

He has dropped from 80kg to 73kg, while Laser Radial sailor Lo Manyi is down to 56kg from 60kg.

Xu Yuanzhen, 23, who will partner Terence, 20, in the 470 Men, has been running 30 minutes every day - even though he hates it.

'My teammates have never seen me run so much in my life,' said the 64kg sailor, who is aiming to be 62kg.

Fortunately, he has the company of girlfriend Toh Liying, 23, who will partner Deborah Ong, 17, in the 470 Women class.

'I think he looks better a bit heavier, though,' joked Toh, who has dropped from 54kg to 51kg.

Indeed, team spirits are high, undampened even by Qingdao's algae bloom that infested the sailing competition waters a month ago.

After a massive clean-up operation involving some 10,000 people and over 1,000 fishing boats and 38 naval vessels, Logan said that most of the algae was gone.

Fog has also covered the Qingdao coast this week. And although some fog is expected during the Games, it is unlikely to have an adverse effect on the sailors.

Said Xu: 'The algae doesn't really affect us badly. We just manually get rid of any stuck to our boat and then sail on.'

The sailors will still have more time to get used to conditions. Although they return home next Tuesday, they will head back to Qingdao on July 31, well ahead of the Aug 8 opening ceremony.