Team GBR update

In the second part of our interview with him, Olympic Manager Stephen Park looks at the form within team GBR

Continued from part 1 of our interview with Stephen Park

With the success this season of Paul Goodison, Ben Ainslie, Iain Percy to name but a few - the world of team GBR still looks to be rosy with some good medal prospects in the build up to the Athens Olympics in 2004. Results have been particularly impressive in the Laser, Star and Finn while in some of the other classes there is, erm, room for improvement.

Musical chairs

Within in the various classes there have been a few changes.

49er silver medallist Ian Barker has withdrawn from the Star - who wouldn't with Percy to contend with? Rumour has it that Barker is now considering a Tornado campaign. The RYA's Olympic Manager Stephen Park sheds no more light on this, but says that Barker is no longer in the World Class plan. However should Barker's future lie on two hulls it is likely he will be fast laned into a funding situation thanks his return from Sydney with metalware. "He hasn’t formally said anything about the Tornado nor what his plans are at this time," says Park.

In the Mens 470, Graham Vials is now sailing with Bevis Field instead of Dan Newman. Meanwhile Iain Percy and Steve Mitchell are soon to be joined in their Miami training camp by Jez Fanstone and Nigel King. King and Fanstone sailed together in the Volvo Ocean Race aboard News Corp. Fanstone has an Olympic background and went to Barcelona as tune up to Stuart Childerly in the Finn.

Fanstone and King may not be the only ones to return to the Olympic arena from the glamorous world of big boats.

"There are obviously options for people to come back after the America’s Cup programme in the new year," says Park. "Clearly Ian Walker won silver medal in Sydney so there is always an option that he might decide to come back and have another go. Andy Beadsworth – again, he didn’t get the result he wanted in Sydney, so he might feel there is some unfinished business. And the Soling’s not an option any longer, so probably the only boat he could sail would be the Star. Then Adrian Stead – same scenario. They are all smart, fit sailors."

It is highly probable that these folks might slot neatly into a training role if they don't decide to undertake campaigns themselves. "With the first trial event being in October, there is an option for them to come back for a fairly short term campaign," confirms Park. "I’m sure some of them will be involved in our program in one way or another."

While Shirley Robertson's team is making steady progress in the Yngling, the biggest news this year has been the return to Olympic sailing of Cathy Foster. "She’s relaunching her Olympic sailing career and clearly it’s been some time since she raced but bear in mind she did go to the Olympic games in 1984 in Los Angeles sailing with Pete Newlands in 1984 finishing seventh in the Open 470 class before there was a separate women’s class. And she won the final race," says Park. "Nobody is going to write her off. She’s a smart sailor. Maybe some people think she’s getting a bit past it, but I think she’s going to do everything she can to prove them wrong."

Currently Team Cathy Foster aren't on the official funding programme. "They’ve had a campaign launch. They’ve raised quite a lot of money themselves. They’ve not funded by our program, they’ve got to get results to become funded by us," says Park. "But we’ve tried to help with facilitating one or two bit and pieces letting them join in with some of the coaching and training, that sort of thing."

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