KEY POINTS:
Jo Aleh added a silver medal to New Zealand's tally in the pre-Olympic yachting regatta that has now concluded in Qingdao.
New Zealand exceeded their expectations in the regatta, a warm-up to next year's Olympics, winning a gold medal and two silvers. As well as Aleh's silver in
the Laser Radial class Tom Ashley won the men's RS:X class and Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams were second in the Star.
Auckland's Aleh was assured of the silver medal at the outset of the medal race and was in with a chance of gold if she could put five boats between her and competition leader Anna Tunnicliffe (US).
She finished seventh. Tunnicliffe ended up in 10th place.
"I went into the race with my primary goal being to slow Jo Aleh down as much as possible, and I succeeded in doing that," Tunnicliffe said.
"My start did not go as well as I would have hoped, but Jo had a slow start as well. I worked up behind her, and started forcing her to tack out. I ensured that we stayed far enough from the rest of the fleet that she could not catch up at all.
"Although Jo managed to make up some room on the downwind side, I worked up behind her again and continued to carry out my plan."
Aleh also won silver at last year's Qingdao test event and has had a solid season so far in 2007 with a further three top-three finishes at international events, including a win at Kiel Week. She has already been nominated to the New Zealand Olympic Committee by Yachting New Zealand for inclusion in the 2008 Olympic team.
Aleh will compete in the Laser Radial world championships, which will be sailed off Takapuna, North Shore City, in March. However, her focus for training for the next year will be to sail as much as possible in the conditions experienced in Qingdao.
The Laser fleet also sailed their medal race on Thursday night. Kiwi Andrew Murdoch placed 6th to finish in 7th place overall.
At the end of the regatta Great Britain was the stand-out country with a total of six medals - five golds and a silver. Australia came in as the second country overall with a total of four medals, just ahead of New Zealand with three.
* America's Cup holders Alinghi have accused rivals BMW Oracle Racing of holding the competition to ransom after their decision to file legal proceedings in New York.
BMW Oracle owner Larry Ellison is suing Alinghi for what he says are "unfair" rules for the running of the next America's Cup.
"Ellison lost on the water in 2003 and in 2007, failing to secure a match for the America's Cup," said Alinghi skipper Brad Butterworth. "He is now pretending to be the good guy, representing the interests of all stakeholders, whereas in reality they have gone to court to force an earlier private match on their terms without the involvement of other competitors."
Butterworth said that while Oracle's legal teams were busy destabilising the 33rd Cup and the preparations of the existing challengers, they were simultaneously snapping up sailors left, right and centre.
"These underhand tactics make it particularly hard for the smaller teams who rely on sponsorship, which is very hard to secure under these circumstances," he said, and showed disregard for legitimate competitors.