Ian Walker

Team GBR's Star representative talks to madforsailing.com

The British Star representatives, Ian Walker and Mark Covell, have been in Australia since mid-August. Now they are waiting patiently for their regatta to start, and watching their team mates power to medal contention in five fleets. Ian spoke to madforsailing.

mfs - It’s now day 6 of the Olympic Games and you haven’t been able to even get in a practice race, has that affected your build up at all?

IW - Obviously, we always knew that we weren’t going to be starting until day 8, which is Saturday, although we were expecting a practice race two days ago. But we’re pretty relaxed. Practice races aren’t that formal anyway and Mark’s had a bit of a sore throat and a bit of a cold the last few days so that’s actually suited us quite well. We’ve tended to stay away from the dinghy park and tried to stay relaxed.

mfs - You’re obviously well rested, do you feel that you’re sharp enough?

IW - Over the last week, whenever we’ve been on the water, we’ve tried to do some exercises, mainly starting practices and short course boat-handling, things that we hope will keep us sharp for racing. But it is a worry, I mean we haven’t actually raced in the Star since June, but then that’s the same for most of the fleet. We’ve tried to stay sharp and not spend too much time doing two-boat tuning.

mfs - We’ve read in your madforsailing pre-Olympic diary that you’ve had lots of setbacks, how do you feel this will affect your performance, or have you put it all behind you?

IW - We have had some setbacks, we lost a lot of the time we wanted to spend testing all our equipment due to Mark’s shoulder injury and also to the weather. But we’ve just had to make the best of what we’ve got. The boat’s perfectly prepared, we’ve probably had more time to do that than we’d planned, so we're physically ready. I would rather be going into the Games having full confidence in our speed and knowing exactly where we’re at, but on the other hand I’ve got no reason to believe that we can’t put in a performance as well as we did in the Barcardi Cup, earlier in the year.

mfs - The other members of Team GBR are doing noticeably well at the moment out on the water, do you feel under extra pressure?

IW - Not really. I was delighted today watching some of the racing and it’s great when the team does well. It gives me great confidence in all the systems that we as a team are actually using - be it the weather, the coaching, or the organisation and support. It’s great to be able to talk to other team members about what’s going on, on the race course, particularly when they’ve had a good day, and I think it just boosts confidence in the team, so lets hope it stays that way.

mfs - What do you learn when you go out and watch them race?

IW - Well, for each wind direction we try to see if there are any trends in the winds or currents. There are no guarantees that we’ll get those winds again, but we’ve been out here quite a lot over the last three years and everything we’ve seen and done, we’ve written down and get a feel for that. Also, more particularly for Mark, you get a feel for the atmosphere. Things like, helicopters overhead, not being able to hardly hear yourself think sometimes, even what the race marks look like or the course configurations. Actually seeing it in real life rather than in the sailing instructions is good for us.

mfs - At the last Games, you came away with a silver medal in the 470, how does your preparation for these games compare to Savannah?

IW - The preparation has been quite different because of the distances involved. Having to come down to Australia has really affected when we’ve been able to train with our equipment and we are a bit behind schedule with all that. Also, the fact that we’ve only been sailing in the class for just over a year is a factor. In the 470 with John (Merricks), we’d been number one in the world for two years, when the Games came round. We’d been sailing the class for three years together and eight years individually, so we were a lot further down the line. On the other hand, there were other problems we had, there was a lot more pressure on us as we were one of the favourites and we had to deal with that.

I think the other lesson that I took away from Savannah, was that the people you perceive to be favourites, as we were last time, always have their own doubts. John and I certainly had doubts in areas of our own performance going into the last Olympics, and I’m sure that those people who we look up to in the Star as being the favourites for the Gold medal, will have their own worries and concerns. We can draw a bit of strength from that and having been on the other side of the fence I know that it’s not always as rosy as people make out.

mfs - How does it feel to be in Sydney for the Games, with the backdrop of the harbour, compared to the swamps in Savannah?

IW - I think it’s great. In Sydney, you just want to go sailing even if, like today, it’s just a couple of hours training, you just want to get out there. The scenery’s great, the atmosphere’s great, there’re lots of people out watching. You get lots of different conditions every time you go out, so it’s great fun. On the other hand, it is very difficult racing, compared to Savannah, which was difficult but we were more in the open ocean, which is a little bit more predictable. I think we have to be prepared for a difficult time on the water, but there’s no reason why that shouldn’t suit us.

mfs - How much has Team GBR helped you and is it any different to four years ago?

IW - It’s not that different. We had a personal coach last time and this time we’ve had support from Chris Mason throughout most of the year and out in Sydney, we’ve also got Bill Edgerton who is a great help out here. He grew up here and is very strong on the rules and very knowledgeable so he’s helping us a lot and taking some of the work load off us in terms of measurement and some of the boat work as well. In terms of backup, I really believe Team GBR is second to none. The support we get from the weather guys, the physios - everything, not just from Team GBR but also from the BOA, is focussed on the athletes. What we need to best improve our performance is laid on for us. It really is led by the athlete's needs this time round.

mfs - Thanks, Ian.