Sara Winther reports ahead of the Skandia Sail for Gold regatta
by Sara Winther on 6 Jun 2011
Sara Winther (NZL) wins the Gold medal in the Womens Singlehander (Laser Radial) - Semaine Olympique Francais 2011 Guillaume Durand
NZL Sailing Team member, Sara Winther reports from the Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta at Weymouth UK, which starts tomorrow. Sara is sailing in the Womens Singlehanded event (Laser Radial) and is looking for another top performance, in this event, which is also the sixth round of the ISAF World Sailing Cup.
755 Entries, 62 Nations, 1072 Athletes, 320 Coaches.
Anyone with Olympic aspirations is here in Weymouth to race Sail for Gold 2011.
A world cup in its own right, this is also Olympic trials for many countries including NZ. The radial fleet has 92 entries with the Silver and Bronze Medallists from Beijing included and the current world champions and number 1 ranked in the world.
Racing starts tomorrow and we will share a course with the laser full rig fleets. We will alternate start times each day. But we rarely stay on schedule and there is a lot of waiting around on the race course for each fleet to finish.
Like normal we have 10 scheduled races over 5 days, and the medal race for the top 10 on day 6.
This is a good opportunity for me to test my speed out at the Olympic venue and also test some equipment that I will use here for the next regatta the Olympic test event in August.
I have had some good training over the last week, with a mixture of conditions, and some really good girls to race against.
I am all set for the regatta – I have nicknames the event ‘Sail for Cold’ as it has been rather chilly. Luckily I have some new Pryde gear to keep me warm and toasty.
That’s it for me in Weymouth, will update you all later on in the week.
Sara Winther
Website: www.sarawinther.com
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