Iain Percy

Britain's Finn star just wants to stay cool, Ed Gorman reports from Sydney

"Just keep calm - you gotta force yourself to think how you normally think. In terms of just, 'keep trying, every place counts where you are'. Don't start getting super-stressed because you're down and it's the Olympics - it's like any race. You've got to come back and get all the points you can."
So says Iain Percy, summarising his philosophy on the eve of the biggest regatta in his young life. His remarks came as we sat in a little restaurant just a stone's throw from the immaculately-organised Olympic sailing venue at Rushcutter's Bay in Sydney - the setting where Percy will surely win a medal in the Finn class.

The striking thing about him is that although he talks about keeping cool and being relaxed, he need hardly bother. The young British Finn ace, who won the European championships last year, is a cool customer and, one suspects, a big game player who will thrive under the unique pressures which only an Olympic regatta can bring to bear.

In the week before the start of the competition Percy, like Britain's Star class helmsman Ian Walker, has been suffering with a cold which has put him out of action for five days. For some this could set-off a debilitating confidence crisis, but Percy has shrugged it off, content in the knowledge that five days lost at this stage will hardly affect a thorough-going programme which has been building-up for two years.

Percy has come to Sydney to get a gold medal and he does not mind admitting it. There's nothing immodest about it - he believes he can win the gold medal and, at this stage, silver or anything else is not on the agenda. His main rival in a steadily tightening 20-strong Finn fleet is the Polish defending Olympic champion Mateusz Kusnierewicz who has dominated the class since Savannah. But Percy has beaten him several times when the pressure has been on - in Sydney this time last year at the pre-Olympic regatta, and in Ostende in Belgium at the European championships last year - and he believes he can do it again.

But the Pole - a strong all-round sailor who is particularly quick downwind in light air - is not the only threat. The others to consider include Fredy Loof of Sweden who won the class worlds in 1997 and '99, Sebastien Godfroid of Belgium who won the silver medal behind Kusnierewicz in Savannah, and Richard Clarke of Canada who has been a consistent podium finisher in recent championships and is the current world number one.

But "Perky" as he is inevitably dubbed, has the beatings of them all. Aged 24, he's still only been in the class for two-and-a-half years and is improving all the time. He has always taken an uncomplicated view of racing and his approach remains simple and focussed. On the race course, the former two-time Laser national champion brings more aggression and energy to the task than most of his rivals and downwind in a breeze he is untouchable.

Unlike his good friend Ben Ainslie, Percy is not having to struggle with the weight of widespread expectation that he will win the gold - or any medal. His profile is still fairly low and that is working to his advantage. But there have been hitches on the way to Sydney, not the least of which was the Finn Gold Cup in Weymouth in June, when Percy's hopes of a first world championship were destroyed by three OCS calls, one of which was later withdrawn. His final results included two OCS, two firsts, a second and an eighth, leaving him 18th overall.

Had this left a residue of nerves - a niggling uncertainty that could hold him back at the start? "It's going to be totally different here with just 25 boats in the fleet," said Percy. "I haven't been OCS before ever and I haven't been since and I've had enough events since to know I can carry on as I was and put it down as a bit of an anomaly."

"In some ways it was a good thing," he continued. "The races I did, I was pretty dominant and it's taken the pressure off because I am not world champion coming here... at the same time people still got a good dose of intimidation from the thing, so I don't see anything particularly lost."

And what about the match-up with Kusnierewicz? "We've had a couple of races round here and we've been pretty similar. Other people have come on form, so it'll be slightly different this time - it won't be one-on-one so much which is probably to my advantage. It'll be racing rather than match-racing," he said.

Like everyone else preparing to race in Sydney, Percy is not looking forward to gambling on big shifts in light airs inside the harbour and will be looking for fresh sea breeze conditions to enable him to sail to his true potential. "Inside the harbour it's going to be cool head, head out of the boat - sharp sailor - that's going to win," he said. "Outside, if it comes in north-easterly with the sea breeze, it's going to be hiking upwind and strength and technique downwind. It's quite a one-sided track and it's pretty much left-hand - go and just hike it."