Team GBR update - 3

Peter Bentley surveys Britain's chances in the double handers for the coming season and 2004

470 Women


Josie Gibson and Saskia Clark

Generally regarded internationally as the Olympic class with the least depth of talent, the Women's 470 has also been Britain's least successful in the five ring circus. It was the one class in which the RYA chose not to send a crew in 2000. Unsurprisingly, the previous generation of home crews have all dropped out.

Josie Gibson and Saskia Clarke are the one crew to have made the WCP squad. Training time and thus results so far have been limited due to university commitments. Only time will tell if they have what it takes.

Recent Youth Squad members, Christina Bassadone and Katherine Hopson remain in the Development squad, along with Jenny Healey. Healey is a talented crew and though not yet fixed up with a regular skipper, is regarded as a prize commodity by the RYA and thus far too useful to be left out of the squad.

Perhaps surprisingly, there is no place for Victoria and Emma Rawlinson, even in the Development Squad, despite having won gold and silver medals at the Youth Worlds. In a vivid demonstration of how serious the RYA are at protecting their long-term investment, Victoria is considered to be too tall, and Emma too short for a really effective 470 campaign at Olympic level - at least in their current roles as helm and crew. The only real option open to the Rawlinsons in order to get squad status is to prove the RYA wrong and start banging in the results. There has even been talk of the tall, athletic Victoria moving into the Europe Class.

With just one crew in the squad at present, expect to see more of the current youth 420 squad moving over into this class before it's all over. As with the men, the Australians have demonstrated what a really good quality dedicated programme with excellent coaching can do. If and when the talent starts to show, the RYA system can do just as well.

From an international perspective, Sydney gold medallists Jenny Armstrong and Belinda Stowell have indicated that they will be competing again in 2004. Greece's Sofia Bekatorou and Emilia Tsoulfa currently lead the world rankings, as they have done on and off for many years and can not be discounted when sailing on their home waters. The German team remain strong in world terms, filling places four to six on the world rankings.