GBR sailing manager Park hails ‘exciting’ home World Cup regatta 

Ainslie joins up with Skandia Team GBR teammates for Weymouth World Cup finale

British Sailing Team Manager Stephen Park is confident his charges will put up a tough challenge on the waters of Weymouth and Portland when the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta gets underway on Monday (9 August).

The regatta, which marks the seventh and final leg of the 2010 ISAF Sailing World Cup series, will see a near-complete line-up of Britain’s best Olympic and Paralympic Classes sailors pitting their wits against the world’s best over six days of competition at the site of the 2012 sailing competition.

The event marks the return of Ben Ainslie (pictured) to the Finn racetrack for the first time since the Beijing Games, with fellow Beijing gold medallists Paul Goodison, Iain Percy, Andrew Simpson and Sarah Ayton, plus many more Skandia Team GBR World and European Champions across the 10 Olympic and three Paralympic classes set to race this week.  

Park, the RYA’s Olympic Manager, is excited at the strength of the Skandia Team GBR squad that will be on display at the regatta in Weymouth, with the only disappointment being the absence of 49er class Hyeres World Cup winners Paul Brotherton and Mark Asquith, with Brotherton sidelined after picking up a knee injury during the European Championships last month.  

“Paul and Mark had been gearing up for our home event all year and are gutted to be missing out, but there is still plenty of time for them to come back and re-establish themselves before thoughts turn to 2012 selections.   

“Otherwise, we’ve got a fantastic team for this event and it’s really very, very difficult to pick out individuals.  I think there’s going to be some pretty tough competition in the Finn class and of course there will be a lot of interest in seeing how Ben Ainslie gets on on his return there.  I’m sure even amongst the British competitors he’s not going to have it all his own way so that will be a really interesting competition to watch.   

“There’s a fantastic line up in the Star class, and it’ll be great to see Percy and Simpson getting back in as the current World Champions so hopefully they’re going to be doing well.  The Laser class will be very good – both Goodison and Thompson will be keen to defend on home turf and show what they can do, as will our windsurfers.  

“We could go through class by class and name the whole team – it’s going to be very hard to pick out any one individual who’s going to do well and I think it’s going to be a very exciting event for Great Britain on that basis.”

With two years to go until the Olympic regatta, Park is under no illusion as to the significance of the regatta in his team’s preparations towards 2012, both on and off the water.  

“We’re trying to think of [this event] a little bit more like the Olympic Games, just as we expect the majority of other visiting teams are.  That’s probably one of the reasons there’s such a big turnout – over 700 boats, almost 1,000 competitors from 57 countries.  

“It looks like it’s going to be a great event and we’re certainly going to be trying to put one or two of our ideas for 2012 into practice.  We only get a couple of opportunities between now and 2012 to do that so we want to make sure we really utilise those.”

“Certainly a lot of other nations are really pushing very, very hard,” Park continued. 

“It’s going to be harder than ever to win medals when we get to the Olympic Games in 2012 and I’m pretty sure that the other nations are going to be trying pretty hard to win them here at Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta this week.”  

“But it’s going to be a great event, it’s going to be huge, it’s going to be fantastic for Weymouth and Portland, and will really mark to years to go to the Olympic Games in 2012.”  

The Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta gets underway on Monday 9 August.  Racing for the Paralympic classes concludes on Friday 13 August, with the final 10-boat medal races for the Olympic classes scheduled for Saturday 14 August.