Xu sets sail for first Chinese gold

LONDON (Reuters) - Xu Lijia could become the first sailor from China to win an Olympic sailing gold when the Laser Radial dinghy makes its debut in Qingdao.

The slender 20-year-old from Shanghai has amassed an impressive series of achievements in her short career and heads into home waters ranked number two in the world.

China have won two silver medals in Olympic sailing - Xiaodong Zhang in 1992 and Yin Jian, also in windsurfing, in Athens four years ago - but never gold.

Xu was China's first medallist at the youth world championships in 2005.

Her breakthrough came a year later, just eight months after switching from the Europe dinghy to the Laser Radial, when she grabbed world gold, the first by a Chinese in an Olympic class.

Xu was denied gold in this year's worlds after being disqualified in the final race.

Xu believes the light wind conditions expected in Qingdao will not be in her favour.

"I am not feeling so good with my light wind performances. Qingdao is really a very, very special venue, with mostly light wind in August, big long waves and extremely strong currents," Xu wrote on her personal blog (chn106.spaces.live.com/) last month.

"I am not good at sailing under this kind of situation ... that's a big problem for the Olympics.