Top of the rankings

We speak to Stephen Park about Skandia Team GBR

Last month we spoke to Michael Jones the recently appointed Olympic Director for the Australian Sailing Team about Australia’s rise to the top of the ISAF rankings. At that time Skandia Team GBR had slipped to fifth overall in the list, losing their long held crown of top sailing nation. However, since that time a number of Olympic class World Championships have taken place and after the ISAF rankings were updated to include these regattas last week, so the Brits are now back on top.

For Jones’ British counter part, Skandia Team GBR Olympic Director Stephen Park,this wobble in form does not represent any significant worry. “We weren’t at the top of the rankings for a couple of months, but that is not really a big deal. It is nice to be at the top though and the media pays particular attention to it,” Park comments. “The rankings favour people that do lots of events and we do not have people traipsing round doing events for the sake of world ranking points as many of our sailors are on individual programmes.”

So Park does not hold the British ranking position as particularly important and takes even less heed of it when referring to the teams chances at the now fast-approaching Olympic Games this summer. “I think it would be foolish to go into the games expecting to do well based on World Rankings or Championship results or even results from the Pre-Olympics. The reality is that it is going to be a tough regatta and it is going to be tough to win medals,” he explains. Despite these views Park is clearly still expectant that his team perform and says he believes this to be the strongest Olympic sailing team Britain has ever sent to the Games. Given that Britain has been top sailing nation at the last two Olympics this is high praise indeed for the sailors heading to China in August.

Of course not all of the British team has been selected for the Olympics next season. The Laser Radial respresentative has yet to be selected, though the field has been narrowed to four candidates. However, despite the Olympics steadily approaching the decision is not necesarrily going to be made too soon. "The Radial worlds [taking place at the moment] is the next event in the selection process for us but we could continue the trial furthur. It is our intent to select sooner rather than later. So we will look at the results at the end of this regatta and see what we think then," Park explains.


Above: Stephen Park.

Despite this slight outburst of confidence in his team Park soon goes back to being his usual measured self on the subject of the Olympics. As with much of the sailing world, the weather in the Olympic venue of Qingdao is a concern to the head of Skandia Team GBR. Specifically his main concern appears to be not just that the weather making racing luck-based but that the regatta will be effectively cut short as days are lost due to a lack of wind. Park comments that of the last couple of Pre-Olympic events taking place in Qingdao there have, on occasion, been fleets which only managed six races over three days and one of these days had three of the six races. It is not hard to imagine in this scenario, he notes, that if the three race day were not sailed too, an Olympic regatta could well start looking awfully short. “I think the Olympic Games is always a great opportunity to lose a regatta and in that regard it is fairly high risk. If you have only a one or a two race series in particularly light winds then it is obviously going to be very high risk. In a light wind venue bits of luck come and go and if you do not have enough races then of course statistically that luck will even itself out.”

This is a point well worth taking on board and the media pressure to slot sailing into a certain timeframe has made the organisers make some rather surprising calls over the years. Specifically when the Olympics rolls around this summer there will only be a single race required to constitute a series. This is, perhaps an obvious thing to do but it is also very worrying for those who love our sport and would like to see the Olympics as the pinnacle of achievement.

When one starts to examine results it is not hard to see why a lack of races is such a concern to Park. “If you take Ben Ainslie’s results from the first three races in the last two Olympic Games, then he would not have won a medal at either event. If there are only three races sailed then you get into the situation where you have to ask if the Olympics are giving a true test of athletic ability. I suppose you have to hope the technical delegates will do everything they can to ensure we get the maximum number of races in to allow the best sailor to win as opposed to the best sailor over one or two particular days.”


Above: Ainslie leading at the Princess Sofia.

In spite of these worries, though, everything is very much business as usual for Skandia Team GBR. Interestingly for a nation so revered for their team ethic, this stage in Olympic preparations will see the various British representatives very much carrying out their own programmes. “Each boat has a very specific programme for them to ensure that they are in the best possible shape for China,” Park explains. “For some that will involve doing a lot of regattas, but there is no ‘one size fits all’ ethic. We do have a couple of times when we are getting the whole Olympic team together, but not at specific events. These will be training camps with the whole team coming together.” However by coincidence rather than planning, all but Percy and Mitchell in the Star will be attending the Hyeres regatta.

At the moment a significant number are out in Palma at the Princess Sofia regatta where the Brits have been spending a significant amount of time training. Park explains they do like this venue and, particularly at this time of year, it offers a good climate and light winds similar to those found in Qingdao. However, he adds that searching out identical venues to the Chinese Olympic sailing location is not always what the team is looking for. “We are looking at light wind venues, but we are also looking at other venues that are specific to sailors training needs. Of course some of our sailors are not looking for conditions as close as they can get to China. For example, they might be looking for the light winds that we are expecting in China but they might not be looking for the same sort of strong current as they might be equipment testing. Equally their may be people that are looking for specific tidal work,” he explains.

Recently, when we spoke to Jones about the Australian preparations for the Olympic Games he commented the majority of the team had already selected the equipment they will use for the Games. Jones stated this was so people could get on with their preparation for the event as opposed to messing around with kit. Is this the sort of policy Team GBR are employing? “We have not set a deadline but obviously each national team does have one to some extent. With any programme you have to assess these things on their individual circumstances,” Park states. “We have to say this is when we need to get things done by as this is when equipment needs to be shipped to China. We then work back from there and say this is how long this testing is likely to take so this is when we need to start it. Those deadlines are all now rapidly approaching of course as most of the kit gets shipped to China within the next four weeks or so.”

Park adds they will be doing a fair amount of air freighting and, if needed, they can always get kit flown out after the shipping date although this is very expensive. In addition many of the sailors have such busy schedules, so if the technical testing is not done by shipping time there might not be enough time between now and the Olympics to work up the new kit.


Above: Asher and Willis, two time 470 World Champions.

One other areas where Skandia Team GBR is significantly different to the Australian Sailing Team is the respective size of each team. The British team is well known for having significant strength in depth across the board with its sailors. This year is no exception with the likes of Nic Asher and Elliot Willis – two time 470 World Champions in this Olympic cycle – being the second best British 470 team. Park is very aware this lack of selection for the Olympics can be de-motivating for a team and although much attention is on the up-coming games these teams are also well looked after. “I suppose it is too easy to get miserable in that situation really. In Britain many of the teams not selected are actually the people that in many other countries would be going to the games,” he comments. “We make sure they are actively involved in supporting our Olympic representatives and at the same time hope they gain as much experience as they can for their own future campaigns. They are members of the team and the team’s job is to win Olympic medals. It is important they play a part in achieving that goal.”

Despite their slight recent wobble Skandia Team GBR are looking very much like the top nation heading into this Olympics, a position they have realistically held for the last eight or so years. If we were to bet on the outcome of the next Olympics the Brits would have to be top of our list. However, as Park rightly notes, these Games above all others, are likely to be the easiest to lose.