You are here: home > diary > september 2002 - World Championships

September 2002 - World Championships

470 World Championships (Sardinia)

We have recently returned from the 470 World championships in Sardinia. 120 boats took part in the regatta, meaning that the regatta was held with a qualification phase and then a finals phase but the points counted from both phases. In general it was a windy regatta with few races being held in under 14 knots. We started the regatta well gaining a 3rd and a 4th on the first day. We then had another good day in slightly more wind taking a 1st, 6th, 1st. We were sailing very well both upwind and downwind and going fast, but we were not getting good starts this didn't seem to be a problem during the qualification as the groups were split and so it was easy to make good comebacks, however, we knew our starting would cause us problems if we didn't improve it for the finals when all the top boats would be in the same group. The last day of qualification was again about 16 knots and quits shifty, there was only 1 race scheduled we started at the starboard end and again made a poor start, we had a good first beat and were 12th at the windward mark we gained a few more on the downwind and then a couple up the last beat which gave us 6th place in the race and 2nd overall going into the finals, but still with a big question mark over our starting.

The finals did not go well for us at all, at the end of the day it was our starting that was letting us down. On the 2nd day of finals we did 3 races and it made to hold to the left on each of the first beats, this meant it was essential to get a good start which we never managed, then the fact that there was only 1 leeward mark (rather then a gate) meant any sort of come back was near impossible. It dropped us to 10th overall, and with no chance of gaining a medal. With 3 races to go we improved slightly but not enough to make any sort of impact on the leaders and finished 8th overall. It wasn't so much that the end result was so bad but the fact that we know we had the potential to get a medal, and really it was just our poor starting that was the difference. The World championships was the last big event of the season for us, which is good news as I dislocated my thumb whilst packing the boats away and won't be able to sail for 8 weeks, luckily there are not too many trainings or events to miss at this time of year. After a break we will be putting together a training and event program to aim to peak at the 2003 World championships in Cadiz, this event is also likely to be our Olympic qualification. Our likely training program is to be some fairly intense winter training camps through November, December and January to develop new techniques and possible some new equipment followed by a total break then quite an intense season of events from March till the World championships in September.

I will keep you posted on how our training goes, thanks for the support.