German News Agency (dpa): Olympic organizers to seal off Qingdao race courses

Update, Tuesday 11am Valencia Time: The restrictions imposed by the Chinese authorities were short lived. After the strong pressure from the sailors and national federations, they were finally lifted. Whether the Olympic sailors will be able to train is another issue. Qingdao woke up on Tuesday covered by very dense fog.

This is a brief translation of the report the German News Agency issued a couple of hours ago:

"The organizers of the Olympic sailing regatta in Qingdao (BOCOG) have declared the Olympic courses as prohibited zone by 8 tomorrow morning (Tuesday), local time. The announcement, sent to all national bodies, included no reasons and no limit. This was confirmed by the sports director of the German Sailing Federation, Hans Sendes.

Speculations in Qingdao are that the organizers might choose harder weapons in their fight against the spread of the algae."

Qingdao's Green Olympics

We have posted a couple of articles and photos on Qingdao's algae plague, mainly of the Spanish Olympic team in situ, but thanks to this video from the BBC one gets an excellent idea of the thick carpet that covers the sea.

Qingdao's golf course

You have to see it to believe it or as the Chinese say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Natalia Vía-Dufresne and Laia Tutzó, the Spanish Olympic Women 470 duo, is currently in Qingdao in order to start their intensive training preparation for the upcoming Olympic Games, to be held in the Chinese coastal city in less than 2 months from now.

The two Spanish sailors wanted to start the training today (Friday) but had to face an unexpected and very tough situation. A thick carpet of algae covered tens of square kilometers of the bay, making it virtually impossible for their small yachts to navigate. According to the UK newspaper Telegraph, this is "the worst algae blight in living memory".

Natalia, jokingly, stated that "it wasn't a sailing race course, it was a golf course. It's not funny at all constantly trying to keep the algae off your rudder".

The photo tells the story, as the two Spanish women try to break through the algae on a windless day. At least they are laughing.