End Of Season Optimist Regatta, Weymouth
Just to underline the almost constant use the RYA Sailing Academies the Optimist Class returned last weekend to the Weymouth Academy for the End Of Season Regatta.
The Class held their National Championships at the same venue in August and must have been slightly taken aback that a record 338 youngsters decided to make a return visit in October.
The importance of the Weymouth as an Olympic venue and of course the quality of Junior Sailing in the UK is attracting the interest and active participation of other countries and 6 other nations were represented at Weymouth including Ireland, France and the Netherlands.
Indeed it was a youngster from the Netherlands Jolbert Van Dizk who mastered the light conditions best to win the 5 race 1 discard series.
After a 27th in race 1, 4 wins proved unassailable with Restronguet youngster David Grant providing the strongest Cornish challenger finishing 4th overall and just missing out on 3rd place on countback.
Restronguet sailors as usual performed brilliantly with Christian Townrow maintaining his season long good form by finishing 13th and Jack Martin scoring his first top 20 finish at a National event by finishing 17th.
All the Cornish youngsters finished in the top half of the Main fleet with Robert Dyer finishing 80th, William Wilson 111th and Joe Burford 127th.
William Wilson aged 10 was one of the youngest sailors in the Main Fleet with the majority of the competitors having at least a 2 if not 3 year advantage in physical development and experience over the Cornish lad.
The results mean that David Grant, Christian Townrow and Jack Martin have all been selected for the National Optimist Squad for 2007/8 Winter training with a view to represent Team GBR at the Optimist Worlds and Europeans in 2008 after the Spring Qualifiers.
All sport these days is ultra competitive and having recently written about how impressed I was with the GBR Olympic Squad at the Sail for Gold Regatta at Weymouth last month you do wonder at what cost.
There is a price to pay at any level and in Optimist sailing that means David, Christian and Jack have to report to a Fitness Assessment Day at Chichester University on the 3rd November presumably to be started on a health and fitness regime.
No more donuts or Kelly’s at when you are 13/14 does seem a trifle harsh but our Olympic nominees for Beijing in the 470 Class Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield went on a crash diet after completing in a windy World Championships in Portugal in July to a windless Olympic Test event in China in August. The pair lost over 6 kilos on already lean fit bodies.
To start so young on training regime does seem like a loss of childhood and growing up with artificial constraints and yet it is noticeable how the nation’s mood and well being has improved in parallel to the exploits of the English Rugby Team over the past two weeks.
If we want sporting success on whatever the playing field then the inescapable truth is that the key is starting young whatever the sport.
My only plea and I am sure every parent would agree is that the youngster must have fun in the process.
After the Fitness Assessment Weekend the National Optimist Squad is at Plymouth over the weekend of the 18th and 19th November for their first training session.
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