Barbara Kendall- Age no barrier to Olympic bid

by Ivan Agnew, Howick & Pakuranga Times on 20 Dec 2005 Supermum sailor Barbara Kendall doesn’t believe age will be a barrier when she targets the 2008 Beijing Olympics at the ripe old age of 41.

‘Why give up something you enjoy doing?’ she asks. ‘It’s just a case of training smarter.’

Should she make the New Zealand team, it will be her fifth Olympics after striking gold in Barcelona in 1992, silver in Atlanta in 1994 and bronze in Sydney in 2000 sailing the Mistral windsurfer.

Kendall has not tested the Neil Pryde-designed RS:X with which the International Sailing Federation has replaced the Mistral.

It is shorter and wider, has more sail and is believed to favour the bigger stronger sailors.Kendall is not fazed.

‘It just means I’m going to have to bulk up a little bit and you can go to the gym and do that,’ says the 38-year-old. She admits she doesn’t know how she’s going to fit in the time between caring for daughters, four-year-old Samantha and five-month-old Aimee. ‘At the moment I’ve got the big one at kindy and the little one squawking,’ she says with a laugh.

Husband Shayne Bright and her parents are fully supportive and have offered to babysit when required to allow her to commit to a rigorous programme.

‘I’ll be into it 100 per cent full on because that’s the way I’ve always been in the 20 years I’ve been windsurfing.

‘For me, there is no other way because it’s not worth doing if you don’t give your all. But I wouldn’t do it unless Shayne was fully behind me.’

Kendall will try out the new board over the Christmas period before heading into serious training in March after attending the Winter Olympics as a member of the International Olympic Athletes Commission.

‘I know it’s going to be hard work but I’m really excited about testing the new board and facing another challenge.’

After racing in New Zealand, she will train in Hawaii in May and June before going to China for the pre-Olympic regatta and Italy for the world championships.

Joining her in the nine-strong New Zealand Olympic squad is her brother Bruce, who at 41, teams with fellow Bucklands Beach sailor Aaron McIntosh in a Tornado.

Although it is a new class for Bruce, he and McIntosh are former world Mistral champions with Bruce having won Olympic bronze and gold at Los Angeles and Seoul in 1984 and 1988 respectively and McIntosh claiming bronze in Sydney in 2000.

Others in the squad are Andrew Murdoch (Laser) Joe Aleh (Laser Radial), Daniel Slater (Finn), and Sharon Ferris, Raynor Smeal and Ashley Holtum (Yngling).

After failing to win a medal at Athens, Yachting New Zealand has decided to support a small squad with the emphasis on quality.

‘It’s a really amazing team, possessed of a lot of talent,’ says Kendall. ‘Which is just great because we should feed off one another.’

Source and for other outstanding sports stories: www.times.co.nz/sport.shtml