The Verdict on Palma
Written by Stephen Park | 09 April 2010
Just back from Princess Sofia and I’ve finally got a chance to reflect on last week in Palma! The snow that had graced our training camp earlier in March luckily disappeared and for most of the week we had great weather, although the unheated outdoor pool at the team hotel was still a little chilly!
One day the racing was cancelled for most classes, due to the winter gales, but other than that we had a week of variable wind from day to day. As I had predicted GBR finished the week with 5 podium places. These ended up being in the 2.4mR, Finn, RSX Women, and two 49er medals. There were of course a few misses, and personally I was disappointed Nick Thompson didn’t medal, as I was coaching him this week. He sailed well through the week, and just missed out in the medal race. I think he will be determined to make amends in Hyeres!
The other aspect to the week was the debut of many of the development sailors for the 2010 season after a winter of solid training in Weymouth, Hayling Island and Palma. A number of our Olympic Development Squad (ODS) guys are balancing university with sailing so this third event of the ISAF World Cup Series was the first chance some have had to get out on the water and compete this season. I was please to see ODS sailors not necessarily on the podium but breaking through into the top 20 or 30, and in some cases finishing ahead of some of the more experienced GBR sailors.
Without doubt Skandia Team GBR has a host of 2012 potential but it is still one of the team’s biggest priority’s to continue to produce world class talent for the future, and this regatta saw a number of these younger sailors breaking through. Izzy Hamilton in the women’s windsurfing classes, is one of our big hopes for the future. Although she is still only 19 years old Izzy, who has without doubt made her mark in the youth windsurfing scene, finished in 20th. Chloe Martin, who has moved up through the RYA Youth Programme finished 26th in the Radial, 470 sailors Ben Saxton and David Kohler, 15th and Sophies, Weguelin and Ainsworth in the 470 Women’s were the top GBR 470 women’s boat. All of these younger sailors are proving not only to be exciting home grown talent for 2016 but also putting the pressure on some of our Performance Squad Sailors, some who have been unrivalled in their class in recent years.
Experience doesn’t always count....... as displayed by double Olympic silver medallist Nick Rogers who with crew Pom Green, despite being reminded about the clock changes still managed to forget to put their clocks forward an hour! Coach Morgan Reeser was sat shore side anxiously waiting for them to turn up on the first day of racing and then decided best to give them a call to see if there was a problem. Nick in his usual laid back fashion was totally clueless as to why Morgan was ringing him before the penny dropped that they were an hour behind schedule and the racing was due to start sooner rather than later! Nick and Pom had a furious rush to the boat park and luckily the boys managed to get to the race course in time for the warning signal!
We’ve nominated three of our podium finishers for Sailor of the Month, Ed Wright, Chris Draper/Peter Greenhalgh and Helena Lucas, so please vote for who you think should be our May sailor on the month.
Thanks all and look forward to blogging from Hyeres, the next regatta of the season.
Sparky