Victoria Rawlinson talks

Team GBR's youth world champion is already focused on the future

Having just returned victorious from the ISAF Youth World Championship in Sydney, Victoria Rawlinson is already focused on her next gold medal at the Youth Worlds in France this summer.

Victoria, 17, and her sister Emma, 15, had hoped for a medal of some colour in Sydney, but did not expect to win gold. "We knew we were pretty fast, but we were looking at building experience in Sydney before aiming for gold in France," Victoria told madforsailing.

"Now we are working towards the next Youth Worlds, but we're looking to get into the 470 too." This year is Victoria's last shot at the youth event, whilst the younger Emma could carry on for another two years beyond that. But Victoria said they were far more likely to continue sailing together in a 470 Olympic campaign for Athens in 2004.

Victoria believes sailing with her sister gives her the edge over other teams. "We know how to get the best out of each other, and how we respond in different situations." But sisterhood does not always work in your favour, she added. The French team in Sydney won the first two races of the Championship by a convincing margin, and Victoria admits she thought the gold would go to the sisters, Manuelle and Virginie Adam. But further into the regatta, the pressure appeared to be getting to them. "I heard a lot of shouting coming out of their boat, so I suppose sailing with your sister doesn't work for everyone," Victoria commented.

The Rawlinsons first came to prominence when they finished seventh in the 1999 Cadet World Championship in Australia, and were first girl crew. Soon after they made the transition to the 420 and trialled for the Youth Worlds in Finland, where they finished fourth. "Our heavy weather sailing was dreadful," she admitted.

Light winds has tended to be the sisters' forte, as they proved when they were leading the 420 fleet - boys and girls included - after the first couple of days at the youth trials in Falmouth last autumn. "We spent a week training there, and we were confident we were the quickest in that sort of breeze," she said. Then the breeze picked up, and the boys came to the fore, but the sisters from Farnham still did enough to win the girls' selection by a massive margin.

Ian Walker, who had just come back from winning silver in Sydney, was one of the selectors in Falmouth and gave the girls some simple, but effective, advice. "Ian told us to just get out in a boat whenever it was blowing really hard - just put on some old sails and go out and get used to it. After you've been battling with the boat practising in 30 knots, racing in 20 knots seems quite easy.

But Victoria reserves the most praise for Paul Brotherton, who has coached them for the past year and was there as the RYA's chief coach in Sydney. "He has brought a new dimension to our sailing," she said. "He's taught us how to cope with pressure, given us techniques to get our anxiety levels to their optimum."

The sisters use "key words" to trigger the way they react or behave in certain situations. "When we get to the windward mark, we'll say a word that makes sure we hoist the kite and do all the same things that we do, whether we are in the lead or at the back of the fleet. If a boat goes past us, we'll use a word of encouragement that keeps us focused on the task rather than getting upset."

Brotherton has also made them more aware of boat balance, using crew weight and sail trim to help them steer the boat smoothly. "He also prepared us for using supplied equipment at the Worlds," said Victoria, who normally uses Pinnell & Bax sails. "Everyone got to use Nautivela hulls and Olympic sails, and actually we quite liked the set-up. But if there were things you couldn't change, we didn't let it get to us. After all, it was the same for everyone, and Paul taught us to use those things as positives."

Now, after the euphoria of Sydney success, it is nose back to the grindstone at college. Emma is in her last year of GCSEs, Victoria is coming up to do her A levels, after which she'll be off to Southampton University to study medicine. Between that and 470 sailing she's going to be pretty busy, so the University sailing team have their work cut out if they're going to convince her to go team racing too.