Aiming for a title defence to kick off 2015
Written by Giles Scott | 25 January 2015
The 2015 sailing season is about to kick off with the ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami, and I’ve just come to the end of a couple of week’s pre-regatta training before the big event.
Miami as an event went pretty well for me last year, although we did struggle with the wind a little bit. It was pretty light winds and we ended up missing quite a few days’ racing but by the end of the week I managed to come away with a narrow victory over the Australian Oli Tweddell which was really pleasing.
It’s generally a good regatta to do and a good start to the competitive year, so I’m looking forwarding getting started.
People often ask me about my form, having had such a good year in the Finn last year. Of course I am really pleased how it all went - it was great to become World Champion again and to have been able to go last year unbeaten, but ultimately it kind of means nothing really at this stage. It’s about what comes next. I’ve not yet earned an Olympic place, and I don’t yet have an Olympic medal so there’s plenty of work still to do.
As it’s an Olympic sport, the big event is every four years so you could argue the events in between that aren’t really counting for anything. I actually don’t see it that way, but for sure I’m in a good place and looking to continue the way I’ve been sailing and keep moving forward with that Rio gold medal in mind.
2015, the year before the Games, and the focus on sailor qualification across the nations starts to increase. For me it’s very much still one step at a time in terms of the approach to events, but you have to be realistic about the fact that you have to qualify for the Games. There’s a set procedure for that and you have to make sure you’re at the top of your game for those regattas, so for sure that’s pretty high on my mind.
In terms of the approach to regattas though, everything stays very much the same. I always want to win every event I do! Everyone targets winning competitions, and I managed to do that more than my Finn rivals did last year, so I think it does change the way that they race against me. I think if you ask anyone they would prefer to be out in front than chasing so I’m kind of happy with how the land lies in that regard right now!
If the wind comes in this week then the racing could be great for this Miami World Cup. The conditions can be pretty tricky here, but the long range forecast is looking good so hopefully there should be some good racing going on for the start of the week at least.
We’ve got about 40 boats entered and a lot of the major players from the international fleet have made the trip to race here, so I’m sure it will be a very tough week.
Follow updates from the British Sailing Team at the ISAF Sailing World Cup Miami on Twitter @BritishSailing, or on our Facebook page, with results available here from Monday 26 January when racing starts