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August 2002

ATHENS PRE PRE OLYMPIC REGATTA

There have been huge changes to the area that will hold the sailing regatta at the 2004 Olympics since we were last there a year ago. Last year the 'Olympic marina' was just a large area of waste land next to the water, the surrounding area was also just wasteland with rubbish dumped everywhere and an unbelievable amount of stray dogs wandering around. There is now the shell of a marina with slipways and a landscaped dinghy park next to the water, car parks, a concrete area for marquees and although there is still a lot of wasteland surrounding the site it has been significantly. It was a clear sign that not only will the Greeks be ready for 2004 but also they will probably do a very good job. It also gave us an insight into the benefits that can come to an area from holding the Olympics.

This was the first test event for the 2004 Olympics in any sport, so the Greeks wanted to make a good impression and make sure there was no bad press. Security was extremely tight with 530 competitors and 500 security staff; nothing was allowed into the regatta site before going through a metal detector and x-ray machine. Cars were not allowed into the car park without being checked underneath and thoroughly searched inside and out, and we had armed guards at the door of our hotel day and night. I don't believe we were actually at as much risk as the security suggested, more likely they were just doing a dress rehearsal for the Olympics to see how it worked.

The conditions were extremely hot, with days between 30-35c and nights rarely dropping below 25c. The predominately light winds meant there was nothing much in the way of spray or wind chill to keep cool so hydration was a major issue. We found it very hard to drink the required amount of fluid to stay hydrated and still have enough room to eat enough food for the carbohydrate. The RYA had in place various methods to monitor your hydration so we knew how much we needed to be drinking, in general it was about 5 litres a day!

The racing was held in exactly the same format as the Olympics, 11 races with 1 discard. They also tried to make the starting the same as the Olympics, if boats were over the line they would let the race carry on and try and take as many boat numbers as possible and they would be disqualified from the race. This didn't work very well as there were too many boats on the start line (2 boats from each country were allowed to enter at the Olympics it will only be 1). We were disqualified in the very first race, which was a shame as it did not benefit us at all being over and we got a terrible start then fought back to 5th. By the end of the regatta almost everyone had at least 1 disqualified, some boats had got 3. Our light wind sailing was very good all through the event and we finished in the top 10 in all of the light races it was in fact the 2 stronger wind days that let us down and we did not get any results in the top 10 on either day. The 470 fleet at the moment is extremely inconsistent and it is rarely the same people at the front from event to event. The Swedish team of Johan Molund/ Mattias Andurson won the event comfortably only 2 weeks earlier however they had finished 15th at the European championships. We finished in 7th place overall unfortunately we were at the back of a group who were close on points we were only 10 points from 3rd. The good news is we have come away from Athens feeling as though it is a venue we could succeed in, and learnt a lot about the venue and what will be important if we qualify for the Olympics.

On Friday we fly out to Sardinia for the World championships, as I said previously this is a very open event, there is expected to be an entry of about 120 boats. I don't see any reason why if we sail well we couldn't win it, we are one of about eight boats who have the ability to win. We will have our new boat out there with a few adjustments since the Europeans. We have also got Chips Howarth as our private coach so there are no excuses it is up to us to perform on the day it is our target to come away with a medal, I will keep you posted.