Mersea Island Web Portal

Our team for the Games - Paul Goodison

12:00pm Wednesday 7th September 2011

SKANDIA Team GBR is the British Sailing Team in the Olympic and Paralympic classes.

The team consists of the Performance Squad and Development and Transitional squads, which jointly total around 70 sailors. The sailors train and compete across 10 Olympic Classes: Finn, Laser Radial, Laser, 470 men and women, 49er, Star, NeilPryde RS:X men and women windsurfers and, new for London 2012, Women’s Olympic Classes Match Racing.

There are three Paralympic Classes: the Sonar, 2.4mR and SKUD18.

Great Britain is the world’s top Olympic classes sailing nation with the British Olympic team sailors topping the medal table at the past three Games in 2000, 2004 and 2008.

In a Dorset Echo column, Skandia Team GBR members are bringing an insight into the campaign for glory in 2012.

Here’s Paul Goodison, Weymouth’s Olympic gold medallist Laser sailor: AFTER a really full-on few weeks in Weymo-uth with Sail for Gold Regatta and then the Olympic test event, it’s a time to look back and reflect.

Leaving with two medals is hopefully enough to show the selectors I am capable of medalling at the games next year, but I can’t help feeling a little disappointed.

In both regattas I went in to the medal race with a realistic chance of winning gold, and only came away with bronze. I have had a good look at myself and hopefully identified what needs to be done to make the difference for the games next year.

It is a little difficult to plan for the next few months until the selectors make an announcement on what happens next in September. I have medalled at every regatta this year except Hyeres and been unbeaten by any of the other British boats this year in International competition.

This has been a bit of a distraction as I feel that I have not achieved my full potential due to a bit of a breakdown in the squad system. It’s always going to be hard when two guys are competing for one spot. Hopefully we can start working together again in the build up to the games to give GBR the best possibility of winning.

I finally got out of Weymouth after what I think has been my longest stint there for a long, long time... I joined Saskia [Clark] for Mersea week but was unable to get a ride on a Winkle Brig (the class that Saskia was racing) – apparently my CV was not up to scratch!

I did get the opportunity to go racing onboard and helm Kismet (somebody obviously saw I had some potential) – a beautiful classic built in 1893 and restored back to immaculate condition. She wasn’t quite as responsive as the Laser but was a joy to sail.

Probably the highlight of the week was Richard (the owner of Kismet) taking me in his helicopter to the golf course for a quick round. After getting over the initial anxiety of my first helicopter flight, I was allowed to take the control – amazing.

I then headed back to Weymouth on Thursday for the RS100 sprint race challenge to help raise money for Cancer research. The boat looked pretty tricky to sail and I haven’t sailed a single-handed asymmetric boat before. With only 10 minutes to practise, things didn’t look good! I capsized leaving the slipway, capsized attempting my first gybe and then again attempting my first gybe with the spinnaker up. The growing crowd seemed to appreciate this as they jeered on...

The two-minute gun went before I had completed a gybe without getting wet – not ideal.

Luckily I was a quick learner and went on to win the heats and final, almost feeling like I knew what I was doing by the end. After receiving my prize I decided to auction it off to the crowd and raised another £100 for a good cause.

It’s back home to see my new niece for the first time and catch up with friends before it’s time to put my head back down with the next block of training.