Styles opens new Tornado Olympic campaign

by Event Media on 7 Mar 2006 Hugh Styles who represented Team GBR at the Sydney Olympic Games 2000 in the Tornado class has teamed up with Tom Peel 29er European champion in 2005 to campaign towards the Beijing Olympics in the Tornado catamaran.

The team are campaigning in two different catamaran classes through the course of this season, the Olympic Tornado and the Hobie Tiger Formula 18 classes. The main focus for the year will be each of the classes World championships and competitions will be Olympic format windward leeward style Racing.

Hugh and Tom have a busy schedule of UK regattas in the next few months, which lead naturally into international regattas in June and July. The initial target regatta being the Formula 18 worlds in Hyeres, South France in mid July followed by the Tornado European championships at the end of the month at Travemunde in Germany.

Hugh who has won medals at World and European Championship levels was previously ranked second in the ISAF Tornado world rankings, a position he held for two years running. Prior to switching to Tornado sailing Hugh was Laser European champion.

He says; 'Its fantastic to be sailing with Tom, its a new team and we have a busy schedule of training and racing. We have some great support from Hobie Cat Europe and sailing as part of their team in the Hobie Tiger Formula 18 means that we are able to run two campaigns side by side. We are initially focusing all our efforts on the next 6 months but the prospects are awesome and Beijing 2008 and Gold medals are not far away!'

Tom Peel crew on the F18 and Tornado hopes this new team will be a resounding success: 'As its a new team we have some exciting times ahead, it will be a challenge but this is a great opportunity to step up into senior level Olympic competition. I am really looking forward to racing at such a high level, but the added bonus is that sailing these catamarans will be exhilarating and awesome fun too.'

The team are looking for sponsorship for their campaign for Olympic gold and would appreciate any offers of support. Please contact Hugh on 01305 770474 or email hugh@hughstyles.com