Dick Batt, British technical official, tipped the construction further ahead compared with that in Athens.

Dick Batt, chief of the four measurers appointed by the International Sailing Federation (ISAF), said,"We started this morning and the measurement is very slow because the athletes are still arriving."

Until Thursday, 403 sailors out of 466 who have submitted their entries from 41 countries and regions had arrived in Qingdao.

Among the athletes, there are 13 medal winners at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. Currently there are totally 111 people that are ranked top 20 in the ISAF Ranking published on August 3rd.

"We will make sure all the boats conform to the rules in terms of size, specification etc. During the race, we inspect the boats¡¡to make sure that the athletes would not make any changes on their boats.And after the race, we will make some spot checks." he added.

Batt, also Chairman of the ISAF Keelboat Committee, praised the construction of the sailing center.

"It's amazing. It's further ahead compared with the construction in Athens."

When asked if there were any difficulties in their measurement, he said,"So far everything is very smooth and no problems."

On August 20, the sailors will have a practice at the sailing center. On Aug. 21, the formal competition will start.

Competitions consists of 11 events of nine classes in the regatta, one of the two test events for the Olympic regatta in 2008, with the newly adopted competition format of medal race.