Laser Radial sailor Sara Winther settles into Weymouth

by Sara Winther on 13 Jun 2012 New Zealand Laser Radial sailor Sara Winther reports from Weymouth on her preparations for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Well things have been a bit up and down over here. After the worlds Marko (Sara's coach Mark Orams) and I had a good trip to Weymouth and both settled in to Weymouth life etc. The weather was awesome and did some really good sailing prior to the event with the GBR radial squad.

Our house has been and still if full, as most of us are staying over here training before the Olympics.

Sail for Gold didn’t quite go to plan for me, I started of the event with two not so great races and a yellow flag. The next day I managed to get another OCS (I apparently am becoming an expert at this) then didn’t really lock into the tide pattern well enough for the rest of the day. This really became the story of my week, not really being onto the things in the race that would make a difference. So the outcome naturally was not fantastic, and also I only got to sail a six race series. But our house was quite successful with Jo and Polly winning and Paul and Jason finishing third! Super happy for both the teams!

Day one of the regatta Marko had a cycling accident and was unable to keep coaching me for the remainder of the regatta. He now has to go home for the remainder of his recovery but should be all good in a few weeks.

But on the positive note I have a new coach for my next few weeks over here. Charlie Baillie Strong grew up here sailing Lasers and is now living in NZ (but was over here coaching the NZ Paralympic team) is kindly staying on to help me with my training over here. I am stoked that Charlie is keen to help me, and now I have a UK coach, and Marko watching eagerly from NZ.

So a slight change of plans over here, but still the fundamentals of my program are the same. I have a good stint of racing and training lined up over here, and am really looking forward to getting into it.

So that’s it from over here, Marko should be home by Tuesday all going to plan. Sara Winter 2012