In the ascendant

We talk to team GBR's 470 women sailor Christina Bassadone and Katherine Hopson about their meteoric rise

While traditionally team GBR has had strong contenders with real medal winning potential in many of the Olympic classes, in recent history the 470 Women has not been one of them. For Sydney in 2000 for example team GBR failed to qualify even as a country in this class. However the results of Christina Bassadone and Katherine Hopson, who have been selected to represent GBR in this class in Athens, indicate that this bright young duo may be in the process of conjuring up the necessary magic between them to bring home some metalware come August.

Last autumn, Bassadone and Hopson finished fifth at the all-important Cadiz Worlds qualifying the UK (but at that stage not themselves) to go to Athens in this class. In January they decamped to Australia and began to show real medal winning potential when they finished second at Sail Melbourne to the strong French pair Ingrid Petitjean and Nadge Douroux and ahead of the local heroes and Sydney Gold medallists Jenny Armstrong and Belinda Stowell.

Compared to some of the other 470 teams, Bassadone and Hopson have only been sailing together for two years. Both are young - both are 22 years old - and both came late to competitive sailing. Blonde haired Bassadone, who steers, has an enthusiastic sailor father who put her into a Mirror on her native Chichester Harbour at an early age. Although she was on the 420 British Youth Squad since the age of 14 she says she didn't start out on the national circuit until she was 16. In 2000 she won the 420 World Championship Trials and was ultimately second at the Worlds and first female - a result good enough to get her on the RYA's Olympic Development Squad.

Similarly Hopson, originally from Croydon, had a dinghy sailing dad but only got the bit between her teeth when she started sailing a 29er with her brother. She was Ladies Champion in the 29er at the Europeans in 2000 and following this moved into a 420 sailing with Charlie Odell. She had only been sailing competitively for two years before teaming up with Bassadone when they met up team racing at Southampton University where both have been studying. Hopson has to date completed one year of her sport studies degree and says she wants to change courses to become a physio while Bassadone has done two years of a Management and Accounting degree.

"We did a year’s sailing and university and then we decided after that, that if we really wanted to try and make it, it would have to be one or the other. So we decided to have to postpone uni for a year," says Bassadone. "Now we’ve qualified we’ve had to postpone it for another year!"

In the fight to get the 470 Women's spot they have been up against Josie Gibson/Sue Parkin and Helena Lucas/Jenny Heeley. These latter two finished 10th and 16th respectively at the Worlds last year indicating that they have had some useful competition to train with.

Unlike the GBR 49er, Tornado and Star sailors, the 470 sailors - both men and women - have been training together as a squad rather than against overseas sailors, under the guidance of coach Hamish Wilcox. "We’ve got all the resources and all the good people within the UK so there is no need at the moment to go anywhere else," says Hopson of why they have taken this approach.

So how come they made it over the other older and supposedly wiser sailors in the 470? "Being the youngest and the latest into the class, we’ve been on a much steeper learning curve," explains Bassadone. She adds that they are highly focussed, work hard and are very determined...

"Something I’ve noticed is that a lot of the girls who do well at youth level don’t continue to sail well afterwards or tried to and weren’t successful so gave up fairly quickly," she continues . "It makes me think they had too much pressure on them when they were young and now they want to enjoy life and do other things perhaps. Katherine and I started sailing very late and didn’t achieve much at youth level - I think that’s made us hungry to do it now."

Despite being the UK form boat in Cadiz, their selection process was something of a bumpy ride. "It did kind of get dragged out a little bit," agrees Bassadone. "We had a meeting with the RYA after the Cadiz Worlds and we knew that would be the decision whether someone else was selected, we were selected or whether the trial was carried on. They said they were going to select us but we would have to prove ourselves at a number of regattas before they would nominate us to the BOA [British Olympic Association]. Then there were several appeals from the other competitors and it all got dragged out and as a result of those appeals they said 'we don’t want to select anyone else and we think you’re the girls to go so we will select you now as opposed to continuing trials but with only one boat." Their slot was formally announced on 13 January this year.

In terms of the international form in the 470 women's class at present there are a number of top players particularly Greece's Sofia Bekatorou/Emilia Tsoulfa and the French duo who came first and second respectively in Cadiz, but Bassadone says the form generally among the top players in the class has been up and down. "It has been changing a lot over the last year. I wouldn’t say there is a pecking order anymore."

Funding-wise following the Worlds they have risen to level B and are still looking for money. They are currently sponsored by the manufacturers of Campino, a new yogurt drink, a deal that came about through a friend of a friend at Hopson's sailing club.

From here they return to Palma to train until the Princess Sofia, starting in early April. They will then take part at the Olympic classes regatta in Hyeres before heading to the World Championships in Zadar, Croatia in mid-May and then on to the Europeans in Wardemunde in early June before hightailing it to Athens.

"We'll be there from the middle of June," says Bassadone of when they will be in Athens. "We’ve got too many competitions and we can’t fit it into our program before then. I think it’ll be okay because it will still be fresh in our minds as we’ve got six solid weeks there before the Games." Hopson adds that they spent a lot of time in Athens last year with the Pre-Olympics and the Saronic Gulf regatta.

Theoretically Bassadone and Hopson have a bright future in Olympic sailing, but future plans aren't on the agenda just at the moment. "We haven’t decided further than August," says Bassadone. "We just want to think about the Games at the moment. You don’t know how you will feel after that, there are so many ifs and whats. So we'll think when we’ve got time to think."