CASTLE Cove Sailing Club’s Jon Emmett is hoping to repeat his previous Olympic success when China’s Lijia Xu goes for glory in Rio later this year.

Emmett coached Xu to Laser Radial gold at London 2012 and both will want more of the same in Brazil this time around.

Emmett’s chance to coach Xu to another Games triumph comes after the latter, who has been out of competitive action for two years while studying in the UK, decided to make a comeback.

Xu has also been recovering from a number injuries but says that her body will now have more resistance to such problems.

Emmett said: “I am obviously delighted to be working with Lily again, although it is now very late in the Olympic cycle.

“Our first barrier to overcome is the fitness and we are doing our best to conquer this as soon as possible.

“We know we will spend less time than everyone else at the Olympic venue, but we are determined to make every day count.”

Xu also claimed Laser Radial bronze at Beijing 2008 and carried her country’s flag at the closing ceremony in London four years ago.

Now 28, she began her international career in 1998 at the tender age of 11 and won her first major gold medal a year later in the Optimist class at the 1999 Asian Championships.

It was in the same year that a 12-year-old Xu escaped death when she and her team-mates were caught in a storm while training on the open sea off the coast of Fujian Province.

She would have competed at the Athens Olympics in 2004 as well were it not for doctors finding a tumour near her left knee.