From the Qingdao breakwater

Alistair Skinner sends his final observations from the Olympic sailing

That the 2008 Beijing Olympic Regatta staged here in Qingdao has been a huge success for Team Skandia GBR is beyond doubt no matter how you measure that success and Stephen (Sparky) Park must be immensely proud of himself, his sailing team and the support structures on the ground in China and over the years from the RYA.

4 Gold Medals, over one third of the events; 6 medals in total, over 50% of the events and just as importantly in terms of strength in depth, by qualifying for the medal race in every event Team GBR showed the rest of the world just who is the team to beat.

We amazed the World with five medals in Sydney, amazed perhaps even ourselves by matching that in Athens, but those results have turned out to be just precursors to this fabulous medal haul here in Qingdao.

And not won just because of light weather specialities or loss of weight at all - although the preparation was excellent, right down to the last detail of providing their own chef’s with their own team bus, among many other factors: years of hard work gone by, with the sailors honing their skills from the RYA Volvo Youth Squad system and on, and then the Sports Lottery which has also proven to be a valuable aid to our success as a nation on the sailing racecourse.

Ben Ainslie in the Finn and Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson didn’t just win Gold, they won their resepective medal races in condtions that would have had some offshore races shortening sail and just about did for my Nikon SLR - and that was just on the breakwater.

It was thoroughly a team performance. I noticed during the Finn/Yingling Medal day that as the “Blondes” were blasting downwind in their race Ben was out there practicing just off the side of the race course. Whether that was planned or they even noticed each other, I don’t know but it certainly didn’t hurt.

I have read and heard of people bemoaning the fact (the US Sailing team among them) as to just how professional and organised Team GBR is. We are bound to be copied, but thankfully it cannot happen overnight and with luck and continued effort we should still be holding the nap hand when Olympic Sailing comes to Weymouth in four years time.

Strangely, I think one of the countries with the best chance, mainly because of the ability to throw resources at it, of copying the GBR model, would be our hosts here this time round.

While not yet a sailing nation, China showed more than promise here in Qingdao with four teams qualifying for the medal races, with a Gold and a Bronze the end result. This is not so far from where GBR was just a few regattas ago. And as I have said many, many times: There is no reason why sailing cannot be just as big here in China as I any developed country with a significant coastline - just give them time.