Sailors Say Move The Olympics

The International Sailing Federation wants the 2008 Beijing Olympics to be moved from July to September to avoid the "serious problem" of the typhoon and monsoon season.

ISF president Paul Henderson will ask new International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge - a yachtsman in three Olympics - to consider the change.

"ISF will ask the IOC to consider moving the dates of the games from the now scheduled end of July proposal to the end of September," Henderson said.

"Both Tokyo in 1964 and Seoul in 1988 held the games in September to avoid the monsoon-typhoon season coupled with the intense heat and rain they bring. It is sincerely hoped that the new IOC executive board will address this serious problem immediately."

The 2008 sailing events will be held in Qingdoa, 350 miles southeast of Beijing in the Pacific Ocean.

Henderson is a Canadian IOC member who led Toronto's unsuccessful bid for the 2008 Games. He said Qingdoa would provide a "unique experience" for Olympic sailors.

The Daily Telegraph said Wednesday that Beijing's Olympic organizing committee had given July wind speed figures of 4-5 meters per second between noon and 5 p.m. when racing usually is held.

That is equivalent to 8-10 knots, or very light winds.

The paper said during the Optimist World Championships, which ended Sunday at Qingdoa, only one race was possible in the first three days. It said dominating the 208-boat, 45-nation fleet were Asian sailors who were used to the light winds.

Fiona Campbell, the meteorologist to the British team at the championships, said weather problems in July were twofold.

"The monsoon can bring heavy rain, which will squash the light wind," Campbell said.

"The heat drawn off the land mass to the west will be intense. There is also the risk of typhoons curling up the coast from the southeast. September is a calmer period."

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