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August 2002

470 Europeans Report

We have just returned from the 470 European championships held in Tallinn, Estonia. The event was also open to competitors outside of Europe but they were taken out of the results for the European results. We finished 4th in the Open event which gave us Bronze in the Europeans. Tallinn was an interesting place, it was the venue for the sailing during the controversial 1980 Moscow Olympic games and we stayed in the old athlete accommodation (now a Hotel) next to the marina. The air and water was surprisingly warm and it was hard to imagine that during December and January the air temperature drops to -20c with the sea freezing all the way to Finland until March.

The event was held in generally light winds with an offshore wind, which produced unbelievably shifty conditions. Consistency was the key, but easier said then done, there were huge gains and losses to be made right up until the final leg. We proved to be very consistent through the event and ended with our worst result to count being an 11th, however we also thought we squandered a few chances when we were in the top 5 and a few of our 6th/7th places could have been 2nd or 3rd's.
Probably the most encouraging point to take from the event was the strong finish. We went into the last day in 7th place (6th European) with 2 races expected we knew we had a chance of getting the bronze (4th overall). Like the rest of the week the wind was offshore very gusty and shifty. We made a good recovery in the first race of the day to take 6th. The Ukraine and the Israel team both slipped up and finished badly, so we were up to 4th European. The Italian team who were in the bronze medal position at the beginning of the day came 4th in the race and so were now 9 points ahead of us. In the last race we needed to beat the Italians by 10 points but make sure we stayed ahead of Israel and Ukraine. The Italians totally messed the race up finishing in 24th, and we overtook the Ukraine team up the 2nd beat then despite our kicker breaking down the last run we hung onto 7th which was enough to give us Bronze overall.

We have come away feeling very happy with our position (we have never got a medal at the Europeans before), but also felt as though we were capable of winning it. The gusty conditions meant there was a huge emphasis on 'changing gears', we struggled with this at times as we were not fully sorted with our new boat and rig and were not set-up as well as we could have been, and know we will be better in events to come.

On Saturday we are off to Athens for 2 weeks for a pre Olympic regatta, this is primarily a training event although obviously we will be trying to get a good result. It will be nice to spend some time there as it is essential to get comfortable in the conditions and to feel happy spending long periods of time there. This is the next to last summer before the Olympics so effectively the penultimate chance to experience Athens as it will be during the Olympics.