Stevie Morrison, a new World Champion

We speak to Britains 49er World Champion about the up-coming Pre-Olympics in China

Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes have long been considered Britain’s number two pairing in the 49er class. With Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks having been in the top two at the World Championships for five years it may have seemed, at times, an insurmountable task for Morrison to take the British Olympic spot. However, a solid year of results, coupled with their win at the recent ISAF sailing World Championship has now put the pair within touching distance of the 2008 Olympic Games.

Victory at the World Championships in Cascais has seen Morrison and Rhodes clinch the single spot for Britain at the Pre-Olympic Games in China, due to begin this weekend. Although it has been a long journey for the pair to reach the top spot they now occupy, time to take in their achievement has been short. “We have not really had much time to let [victory] sink in or enjoy it really. We have been getting ready for the Pre-Olympics since the end of the Worlds,” Morrison explained to TheDailySail. “We flew out to China shortly after the worlds finished so we have not really had time to properly enjoy ourselves and celebrate. Hopefully when we get back to the UK we will have some time to celebrate a bit,” he continues, though presumably these celebrations will, to some extent, be effected by their performance in Qingdao.



Despite the imminence of this next event there has been some time to reflect on the success leading them to this point. “We are over the moon,” Morrison exclaims. “Obviously winning the World Championships is something we have been aiming for since we started sailing the 49er in 2002. It has seemed like a pretty big mountain to climb at times so we are very pleased to have won.”

Morrison and Rhodes have now been out training in Qingdao for several days preparing for the Pre-Olympics. As we are all aware there has been a great deal of discussion surrounding the conditions in the 2008 Olympic venue. Last year at the effective Pre-Pre-Olympics the weather was expectedly tough with extremely light winds and strong currents making racing difficult. Not only this but heavy fog at times made visibility a major issue.

Morrison says so far they have not seen a great deal of wind but conditions have not been too bad. “We have sailed a bit out here training. There has been decent breeze; it has been quite nice really. It is not as smoggy as it was last year. We have had wind to sail in each day so it has been alright,” he commented.

Wind, it would seem, will not be the only problem faced by the sailors out in China as Morrison explains a little more about the current weather conditions. “It has been really hot recently though and it is pretty humid too. It is pretty different from England, put it that way. Although it is about as wet as it was when I left but not from the rain, from the humidity,” he adds



In terms of the ‘on form’ teams Morrison seems unsure as to who may come out on top. “It is quite hard to know who the major players will be. The conditions here are pretty special, they are quite specific and different to any other racing we have on the circuit,” he explains. “The French guys - Emmanuel Dyen and Yann Rocherieux - were second last year [at the Olympic Test Event] and Rodion Luka was third. Rodion did not have a good worlds but he will be focussed on this event,” Morrison continues. Of course looking at the form from last year there is one major team Morrison and Rhodes will not have to worry about, that of Draper and Hiscocks who took victory last year but who will not be attending.

There are, however, some up and coming teams the British pairing will be keeping their eye on for success at the event. “The young Aussie guys – Nathan Outteridge and Ben Austin - are starting to sail pretty well and are clearly very talented guys so I would not be at all surprised if we see them do well here,” he explains. “Like all events there are lots of good sailors around that might be able to do it on the day. We just need to not make the mistakes really, keep hammering out the good average results and stay solid.”

When we spoke to Morrison mid-way through the ISAF World Championships he commented that their success was due, in part, to keeping cool out on the water and not ‘losing your rag.’ This self discipline continues to feature in Morrison and he explains simply who their greatest threat is at the Pre-Olympics. “I do not think we have anyone we are specifically worried about, just ourselves really. I think our biggest threat to medalling is ourselves,” he states.

There has been much speculation about what is actually required to qualify for one of the British Olympic spots but the likelihood is that if Morrison is able to medal in Qingdao at the Pre-Olympics a spot in the 2008 Games would be his. Morrison, however, is trying not to think of this “Just like the worlds we are trying to do our best. As soon as you start thinking about negative things or anything like that you can just lead yourself into moving to where that target would be as opposed to trying to win the event,” he explains.

Presumably Morrison is aware of exactly what he needs to do to qualify for the Olympics proper in 2008. He is, however, rather vague when asked about this subject. “If we are able to do as well as we want then hopefully that will come with its reward,” he comments. “We feel we are close but to be honest we are thinking about [this event] purely as a dry run for next year. Obviously winning or medalling here would be great and would do a lot to boost our confidence.”

Irrespective of their breezy attitude Morrison and Rhodes must be starting to feel the pressure as they head into the Pre-Olympics. Clearly Olympic qualification is, more or less, theirs to lose. A bad week could see the team back to where they started, heading towards a 49er Trial back in the UK. Surely a good week would see them formally accepting an offer to attend the 2008 Olympic Games in China. We will be watching with baited breath.