At the start of 2009 I had a lot drive and motivation after finishing a disappointing 4th in China, I set myself the goal of winning the RS:X World Championships, firstly because it’s at home in Weymouth, secondly it’s the Olympic venue and I wanted to prepare as much as possible so I can do better than I did in China.
Of course it all went really well and exactly to plan... and in the middle of 2009 we had the birth of our first child Thomas. That was a major part of 2009 for me and understandably took up a lot of mine and Sarah’s time, so by the end of the year I was really happy, a great year for both my personal and professional life.
The only problem I had was battling a hamstring injury since before the World championships. I saw a lot of specialists and had a load of scans, which was really frustrating and has interrupted training slightly. This meant I went to Miami without the proper preparations and was really pleased with finishing in fourth spot considering how little real training I had managed to do before the event. After Miami I had a great month’s training at home at Weymouth before heading out to Palma. With a new child it can be pretty stressful at home with all the late night feedings, so to get away for a bit and concentrate on my training was a great way to get focused and which was really refreshing, it seemed like a bit of a holiday to be honest!
At the end of February I was pretty ill with some kind of cold virus which stayed with me for around a month and I just couldn’t shift it. I had loads of rest and took all the right vitamins, but still felt really under the weather which wasn’t the best just before the Princess Sofia regatta in Palma. I had to miss another month’s worth of training and before Palma I was really unsure if I should take part, just in case I wasn’t competitive. However it is worth it even if you are not one hundred percent, because if you have already dealt with the fact you aren’t going to win, then it frees you up slightly to concentrate on your own race and you’ll get something different from the experience. The racing itself was great, we raced in one fleet so we had seventy boards on the start line and with the light winds it was really physical which was great after all that missed training.
Looking ahead, this year for me is all about the Skandia Sail for Gold regatta. It is really important for me to do well at Weymouth with it being the next Olympic venue. Also Skandia Sail for Gold is the final event on the ISAF Sailing World Cup circuit, as well as an important ranking event for the RS:X class.
All the other events this year will act as great training opportunities, but I really want to make Sail for Gold my number one priority. I am not going to the RS: X Europeans, or defend my World Championship crown this year because I want to be training and competing in Weymouth as much as possible. This was a big decision for me because winning the World Championships has been the highlight of my career so far, winning it in front of my home crowd was a dream come true. However everything I do for the next two years has to be about working towards the Olympics in 2012 and coming away with the best result possible. I understand that I am putting all my eggs in one basket with focusing on Weymouth, but I do believe it will serve me better in the long run.
In the short term we have got two weeks training at home before Hyeres and by then I should be on much better form. I know you can’t miss so much training and get back to full race sharpness straight away, but I am confident I will be racing at the front and being competitive. Me and the team will then review the performances there and start to plan for the summer.
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