Skandia Team GBR update

RYA Olympic Manager Stephen Park looks at the squad

Skandia Team GBR has been the top sailing nation at the last three Olympic Games, at the ISAF Worlds in 2003 and 2007 and in the World Cup series last year. With the 2012 Olympic Games coming to British shores, prospects remain good for another impressive haul in Weymouth, but several other nations, many learning from the successful GBR model, are on a rapid ascent and Britain’s top dog position in two season's time is by no means assured.

In the UK few monitor this situation more closely than the RYA Olympic Manager, Stephen Park, recently recipient of an OBE.

Sailing squad news

Two and a half years out from the Games and the GBR Olympic machine is already cranked into life with most of the squad in Palma preparing for the Trofeo Princess Sofia regatta - the prelude to a busy season in Europe that this year culminates in Skandia Sail for Gold in Weymouth, mid-August.

Interestingly, within the Skandia Team GBR sailing squad there are unique issues - thankfully most of them very positive ones - facing the sailors in each of the 10 disciplines.

Take the Finn for example, where if Skandia Team GBR was allowed to unlease its entire squad into the Games themselves, there would be a very real possibility of British sailors securing the entire podium... The problem here is that there is such depth of talent that it is hard to get funding for the entire squad.

In the Finn the form is similar to four years ago with long term campaigner Ed Wright gunning hard on the circuit, waiting for Ben Ainslie to step back into the class late in the cycle, win everything in the build-up to the Games, get selected, and then claim his umpteenth Gold.

The main difference this time is that Wright is getting some tough competition on the circuit from young blade Giles Scott. At the Rolex OCR in Miami the Brits claimed first and second with Wright 20 points ahead of Scott. And this was despite Wright being injured.

“He cut is foot on a propeller the week before and we weren’t sure whether he was going to b able to sail,” says Park. “He couldn’t walk properly on it, because it was right on the bottom. So bearing all that in mind he did really well.”

So Wright and Scott are continuing to work hard waiting for Ainslie’s return, which is likely to be at Skandia Sail for Gold, later this year. “Obviously those guys are trying to do everything they can to get themselves into a position so that when Ben gets back on his boat and comes racing, they have generated enough distance between where they were and where they are to make it hard for him to just come back and win like he did in the last cycle.”

So can they really topple Ben? “There’s always the possibility,” continues Park, somewhat tentatively, as the RYA Olympic playbook still hasn’t really worked out how best to cope with prodigious talent like the four time medallist. “At the end of the day, Ben isn’t going to be the best Finn sailor in the world forever, so at some stage it is going to happen whether it is now, 2016 or 2020. But we are obviously working hard on Ben’s program too. It is a great challenge that the other guys have got and it is great for Ben that they are doing that, because he knows that if he can come back and still be in front of them, he’ll have a reasonable chance come the Games. I certainly wouldn’t bet against Ben at the moment.”

Nor would we.

Ainslie was recently in Valencia Finn training with Rafa Trujillo under the watchful eye of coach Sid Howlett. If he only does Sail for Gold this year and wins, then Park points out that it will effectively be a repeat of what Ainslie achieved at the same stage of the last Olympic cycle – when he won the Pre-Olympics in Qingdao two years out.

The Finn situation is happily becoming similar in the Laser, where having won Gold in Qingdao, Paul Goodison continues to ride the crest of a wave having won last year’s World Championship. Goodison is certainly being helped through having some real home grown competition in Nick Thompson. While Goodison is at present ranked no1 in the world, Thompson is number 2. Goodison is likely to be back for Hyeres and will compete at Sail for Gold, but his main focus for the year is defending his World title, particularly so as this year they are being held at Hayling Island Sailing Club starting at the end of August.

In the 470s it is a case of musical chairs. Beijing Yngling Gold medallist Pippa Wilson, who last year teamed up with Saskia Clarke, chose to go walkabout shortly before the Rolex Miami OCR.

“Pippa decided she wanted to take a bit of a break and do a bit of travelling and re-appraise where she is at with her life - not just her sailing,” explains Park, adding that he thinks she is in Chile at the moment. Hopefully nowhere near Concepcion. “She has been pretty full on since she was in the Youth squad and hasn’t had much of a break to do anything like that outside of sailing. So she decided that she needed some time to do that. She may well come back in the spring...or perhaps not.”

So leaping into Wilson’s place for Miami was her Yngling double gold medallist helmswoman Sarah Ayton. She and Clarke ended up 13th and at present they are training ready for their first regatta proper – either Princess Sofia or Hyeres.

Among the 470 Men, the squad has a strange mix of experience. Double Olympic silver medallist Nick Rogers last year teamed up with Pom Green, after his long term crew Joe Glanfield opted to stand down. According to Park Glanfield is unlikely to return. “Joe is involved in the team in a number of different areas and we are expecting that to continue. He is working on the performance side and doing some case by case coaching support.” But as a result Rogers and Green’s performance in 2009 was decidedly average.

However once again the class has good depth. Long term pretenders to the Rogers throne are Nick Asher and Elliot Willis, who have won two World Championships and were first at Skandia Sail for Gold in 2009. And then there are the young guns Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell who surprised themselves when they finished second at last year’s Worlds.

“They had a good year – 2nd at the worlds and were second at Sail for Gold Regatta,” says Park of the nippers. “About half way through Miami they were third after six races. They are coming up well and clearly they are hungry and really keen to make an impact on that group.

“Effectively we have got one team who is second in the world, another which has won the Worlds twice and another guy who has got two silver medals - so we have some reasonable experience! Now it is a case of getting the best out of the three boats to make sure that by pushing each other along we have got someone who is capable and confident of winning in Weymouth.”

The situation is similar in the 49er where there is no shortage of talent, but a team is still awaited that can put together consistently good results. This was perhaps best demonstrated at the recent World Championship in the Bahamas where five British teams finished in the top 10, but none reached the podium. The top British crew, in fifth place, were Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign, two Development squad sailors. In the Performance squad at present are Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes, the 2007 World Champions, who finished a disappointing ninth in Beijing. John Pink and Richard Peacock finished second in the Worlds last year while Chris Draper, the 2003 and 2006 World Champion and Athens bronze medallist, is back, now sailing with Pete Greenhalgh. Also up there is the newly rekindled duo of Paul Brotherton and Mark Asquith, second at last year's European Championship in Zadar.

In the Star, like Goodison, Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson are in fine shape. Having claimed Gold in Qingdao, the duo look supremely comfortable sailing together. Last year they become European Champions, they won Sail For Gold and this year they have secured the World Championship win in Rio. So little for Park to complain about. Team GBR now has a second Star crew who are doing the circuit in John Gimson and Edward Greig, and ironically, are now leading Percy and Simpson in ISAF’s ranking. Their best result was a second last year at Hyeres.

Perennially one of Skandia Team GBR’s weaker classes has been the Laser Radial. Saying this Charlotte Dobson is currently ranked fifth in the world. But could there be a ray of light in Ali Young? The 22 year Development squad sailor finished third at Rolex Miami OCR – the best British Radial result since the end of 2008.

“Chris Gowers has been working with them over the last few months,” says Park. “We are trying to push them on as much as we can to really see if we can get into a position where there is medal potential in that class. I think at the moment we aren’t, but we are not a million miles off.”

Meanwhile in the RS:X, Nick Dempsey, the Athens bronze medallist, won last year’s World Championship, while Bryony Shaw is still regularly a top five finisher having claimed bronze in Beijing and providing us with one of the most memorable medal winning reactions. So more solid ground there.

Last but not least, more good news: Lucy Macgregor’s team seems to be continuing the Shirley Robertson, Sarah Ayton lineage and recently beat France’s Claire LeRoy out of her lengthy tenure at the top of the women’s match race ranking.

“She was a bit unfortunate in Miami,” recounts Park of Macgregor’s team. “She got some rope around the keel in the final race against Anna Tunnicliffe - who sailed very well. In terms of the actual match racing, Lucy is probably the best match racer in that area at the moment, but Some of the skills of people like Anna Tunnicliffe is also coming up pretty fast - she has only been match racing since September time.”

The women's match racing issue

A problem with having a pure match racing class in the Olympics is over the limited number of teams that can compete. Typically at World Cup events, places are open to a maximum of 24 teams with ideally spot one per nation. If there are less teams than this then the opportunity arises to allow stronger nations to field more than one team – but this is in order of their ranking. Thus Macgregor being in the no1 spot has additional benefits: Since Skandia Team GBR will only ever get a maximum of two spots in the Women’s Match Racing, th RYA is having to take a difference approach to boat two. Taking a leaf out of the Dutch ‘squad’ approach to their Yngling team for Beijing, so for their B team, the RYA are choosing which helm – from Mary Rook, Katie Archer or Charlotte Lawrence – will sail with which crew, both on a day to day basis in training, but also at regattas. “That is a fairly radical change for us,” admits Park.

According to Park there are typically 18-19 nations regularly racing in Olympic women’s match racing at present so this is particularly benefitting the top four to six nations such as GBR which can get two places.

“The problem then is that while as a nation you can send who you like to a World Cup event, to give yourself a chance of doing well in the standings and increasing the likelihood of getting a second place, you really have to send the same team to each event so that they can climb up the ranking.” So a case of the rich getting richer.

And what happens when it comes to Olympic selection? You can hold domestic trials and even if a team other than Macgregor’s won – it would be a big call to send anyone else. “If you are not careful you only have one team that has done the majority of the World Cup regattas and maybe you have got one or two other teams who may have done some World Cup regattas but outside of that they haven’t done any racing in the Elliott 6ms, because you only race on the Elliott 6ms at the moment on the World Cup circuit. Therefore for most countries the selection has already been made.”

There is of course, independent of the Olympics, the Women’s match racing circuit organised by WIMRA, but typically these regattas are held in boats requiring more than three crew and once again entries are an issue and are based on their ranking.

Despite this situation Park is still hoping to develop the Women’s match racing squad further. This is partly to be able to push Macgregor’s team in training but also as a back-up. “We have to make sure that if they get injured or decide they don’t want to do it, we have someone else to step in. So there are opportunities for other sailors who are not involved with that program, to come in and have a late charge.”

And in case you’re wondering – this was never an issue with Soling because it was not supplied gear and the regatta started with four days of fleet racing to determine the top 12 that would go into the final match racing.

In part two of this interiew Park discusses the drop in Lottery funding, the Weymouth venue and the rise of other nations