An article published in ST, Tuesday 27 November 2000: SAILING New coach set to give boost S'pore hopes to tap his expertise for a boardsailing renaissance By Elgen Kua WITH a new national coach, Qian Hong, at the helm, Singapore's boardsailing future appears to be headed for smooth seas. This is not only because his name means 'bright fortune' in Chinese but also because of his impressive credentials. The native from Zhejiang, China, was Asia's best boardsailor in 1994 when he won the gold in the 12th Asian Games and was twice No. 1 at the Asian Sailing Championships in 1990 and 1996. With such an impressive honour roll, the Boardsailing Association of Singapore hopes to tap his wealth of experience to start a renaissance among the boardsailing fraternity. The BSAS experienced a drought of five years without a South-east Asia Games medal since Goh Thye Hock's bronze at the 1995 Jakarta Games, and has yet to produce another prominent sailor since the late Kelly Chan. Said Lemmy Teo, president of BSAS: 'We brought him here specifically to help our national team and build a foundation over the next three years to develop our next batch of sailors. 'He is presently working out a talent development programme for the the national youth squads and plans to start with secondary schools that have boardsailing as an extra-curricular activity.' Qian is confident he will meet the targets he has set by the time his three-year contract ends, which is to develop a medallist at next year's SEA Games and 2002 Asian Games. But there is a lot of work to be done. After two weeks of observing the team, he gave a critical assessment of the present national selection team. Said Qian: 'Physically, they need to work on improving their strength and fitness. On their skills, they need to go beyond the basic manoeuvres to master the more technical aspects of boardsailing. 'They also need to build on their racing tactics and reading of the weather conditions.' However, Qian is optimistic of their medal chances for the Kuala Lumpur Games. He said: 'All of them have a lot of potential. What is most important is that they are all very spirited and eager, which is the first step to making progress.' His first task for this year is to prepare the national team for the Singapore Open and the Tudor Cup next January. 'My target for them is to close the gap between them and the Thais and Indonesians. 'After that, we can work on their weaknesses and train for the SEA Games.'