Olympic defending champion Xu handed penalty by sailing jury

Defending champion Xu Lijia from China was handed a disqualification penalty in race two by sailing jury, costing her first overall place in the women's laser radial on the opening day of sailing competition of the 2016 Olympic Games here on Monday.

Xu ranked third and fourth in the first two rounds respectively, putting her to lead the overall ranking. But the jury met in the evening to hear a protest from the USA and decided to disqualify Xu from race two, when Xu did two penalty turns.

Paige Railey from the USA protested that Xu's turns were late. The disqualification moved Xu from first overall to 23rd. London 2012 silver medalist Marit Bouwmeester from the Netherlands was promoted to first place.

Xu felt deeply regretful for the disqualification but she accepted the penalty. However, she vowed to do her utmost in the rest rounds.

Under the scoring system, each sailor's worst score is discarded from their final series results. Endit