SKANDIA Team GBR is the British Sailing Team in the Olympic and Paralympic classes.
The team consists of the performance squad and development and transitional squads, which jointly total around 70 sailors. The sailors train and compete across 10 Olympic Classes: Finn, Laser Radial, Laser, 470 men and women, 49er, Star, NeilPryde RS:X men and women windsurfers and, new for London 2012, Women’s Olympic Classes Match Racing.
There are three Paralympic Classes: the Sonar, 2.4mR and SKUD18.
Great Britain is the world’s top Olympic classes sailing nation with the British Olympic team sailors topping the medal table at the past three Games in 2000, 2004 and 2008.
In a Dorset Echo column, Skandia Team GBR members are bringing an insight into the campaign for glory in 2012.
Here’s Team Volvo for Life member Lucy Macgregor, helm of Dorset’s Match Race Girls team who sails with her sister Kate and crewmate Annie Lush: AFTER a two-week break after the Test Event we were looking forward to getting back into training properly again.
We flew to the States for a fortnight in Sheboygan and then Chicago on Lake Michigan to spend some training with our American rivals Sally Barkow for the first week and some American male match racing crews for the second.
Obviously it is important to spend as much time training in Weymouth as possible in the build up to next summer, but having spent so much time there recently it will be nice to have a change of scenery for a couple of weeks before we really get into our full winter programme back in Weymouth.
Some people might find it strange that with the Olympics getting so close now we would chose to train with someone who could potentially be one of our main competitors at London 2012 but at this stage you need to be racing regularly against the best sailors in the world and Sally is one of the best.
We have a good relationship with Sally and her team and the training we have done together has always been very productive as we will push each other hard to a certain level without giving away any of our secrets.
When we need to do a bit more in-house training and test a few bits and bobs out that is where the boys come in very useful.
We were really disappointed to finish seventh at the Test Event.
You never expect to win a medal but we certainly hoped to and that is definitely where we should be aiming at this stage of the campaign.
There were a lot of ‘could’ve should’ves’ from the event but if anything it has given us a bit of a kick instead of feeling downhearted.
The things we had been working hard on in training we executed well but it was simple things that let us down. The trick is pulling that altogether when it counts.
We got what we deserved at the Test Event but we know the areas we need to improve on and the hard work on that has already started.
It may not sound like a break to some people but during our two weeks’ off Kate and I, and our sister Nicky all crewed RS200s at the RS Games at Weymouth and Portland.
I sailed with Dave Evans, one of the Skandia Team GBR 49er sailors, and the event was really great fun.
There were 160 boats in the RS200 fleet while the whole event felt like a massive reunion because there were so many people there who I knew from across the sailing world.
I personally don’t feel I’ve done enough fleet racing recently and it can really help in your match race sailing, especially in the more shifty conditions.
The skills are there but they just need polishing up as we get ready for the ISAF Worlds in Perth in December.
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