Qingdao will be the 10th stopover of the 2010 ISAF World Match Racing Tour (WMRT). The Qingdao race takes place in September, the city's vice mayor Wang Xiulin announced at a ceremony June 15.

At the ceremony, Wang, who is also the president of the Qingdao Sailing Association and Peter Gilmour, president of the WMRT, signed a five-year preliminary agreement, to host a stage of the ISAF World Match Racing Tour in Qingdao until 2014.

As it is the foremost location for sailing in China, the city has already successfully hosted sailing regattas for the 2008 Olympic Games and Beijing Paralympic Games, and was stopovers for the 2008-2009 Volvo Ocean Race and the 2009-2010 Clipper Round the World Yacht Race.

It is a milestone for Qingdao to host the WMRT. Both organizing parties will further discuss cooperative details on games organization and promotion. A final agreement will be signed during this year's Qingdao International Sailing Week in August.

The WMRT, together with the Volvo Ocean Race and the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race are the three top-class global series of sailing. The other nine stopovers for 2010 WMRT are in Switzerland, France, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, South Korea and Bermuda. The events adopt a match-race format and take place close to shore, focusing on competitive skills.