Chinese kiteboarders impress in Summer Youth Olympic Games qualification

HAIKOU, China, May 7 (Xinhua) -- After two days of waiting for advantageous weather conditions, the 2018 Summer Youth Olympic Games Kiteboarding Qualifications Event finally started in Yazhou Wan (or Asia Bay) in China's Hainan province.

After two rounds of competition, 18-year-old Zhang Haoran and Li Kewen both rank second in their respective men's and women's divisions on Sunday.

"Today's wind condition is favorable to light players like me, so I got the first place in the first round," Zhang said. "But I couldn't make the first [place] again in the second round because the splashes caused by other players hurt my eyes."

After two days of windless weather conditions, the players seemed a little bit nervous; many of them had false starts, including China's Chen Jingyue.

"I felt nervous," confessed Li Kewen, "not everyone can make it into the YOG after all."

From some foreign players' point of view, Chinese competitors are their fiercest competition.

"There are so many excellent surfers in our group, especially those two Chinese girls," the current leader in the women's division, Nina Font Castells said.

Kicking off May 3, this qualification event will run till May 8. About 100 players from 32 countries and regions will compete for the right to represent their countries or regions at the 2018 Buenos Aires Summer Youth Olympic Games. Enditem.