SAILORS BEAM WITH PRIDE
Breezing to victory: Great Britain's Iain Percey, competing at his first Olympics, on his way to another sailing gold in the single-handed Finnclass. Picture: Mike Hewitt
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BRITAIN'S sailors felt the warm breeze of glory as they added two more medals to an already staggering total. Iain Percy's gold in the single-handed Finn class, plus a silver for Ian Walker and Mark Covell in the Star keelboat, rounded off an almost perfect Olympic regatta.
One accolade said it all. When the British team entered the final press conference at the Rushcutter's Bay marina, hundreds of fellow competitors and journalists spontaneously rose and applauded a group which has dominated the sparkling waters of Sydney Harbour.
For Percy, sailing at his first Olympics and just 24, it was a moment that allowed him to uncork the anxieties he had been concealing all week. He went into the final day's races with a 20-point cushion over nearest rival Frederik Loof of Sweden. "It looked simple on paper but it certainly didn't feel it," admitted Percy, wreathed in smiles and dripping wet after being thrown off the dock by jubilant teammates. "I was very nervous before the first race."
Those close to the sailor say he did a terrific job from last weekend onwards, hiding from his rivals how stressed he was at leading almost from the first race. Certainly, in media interviews the normally voluble economics graduate was virtually monosyllabic, his face resembling an Easter Island statue.
In the event Percy took gold with a race to spare and was able to stay ashore for the final session while Loof, the Atlanta gold medallist Mateusz Kusznierewicz of Poland and Italy's Luca Devoti battled for the lesser trophies.
Yesterday's first race saw a complete change of tempo from an intelligent young man who brings an uncomplicated aggression to his sailing. The tactics that brought three firsts and six top-five finishes in 10 races had to be shelved in favour of a more Machiavellian approach.
Percy, who is fond of saying that sailing isn't that hard - "you just go flat out upwind and then fast downwind" - entered an intense pre-race briefing with team manager John Derbyshire. The lessons of Ben Ainslie versus Robert Scheidt the previous day were perhaps in their minds.
"The Swede was the only other person who could win, so I had two options. One was to try and win myself, which is always risky. The second was to just sit on top of Loof and make sure he didn't have a good race. I just had to make sure he didn't finish in a high position rather than go out for the lead and maybe see it go wrong on a windshift or someone getting lucky." So from the first pre-start manoeuvres Percy stuck to Loof like glue, spoiling his wind and
generally being as obstructive as possible within the rules. "It's not my natural style but I knew what I had to do and about halfway through the race I knew it was going to happen right and I suddenly started to relax." In the end Loof managed 11th, while Percy was 14th - his worst result of the entire regatta.
Only a year ago Percy was still relatively uncertain about his future and status within sailing. As a teenager he had been a talented Laser sailor, slugging it out in the youth squad with Ainslie. However, Percy physically outgrew the smaller boat and turned to the Finn as the only outlet for a man beginning to have the physique of a young Steve Redgrave.
Behind the scenes in the Olympic sailing squad are a team of physiologist, fitness trainer, physiotherapists and specialist weather adviser David Houghton as well as individual coaches for each class of boat. In many cases the lottery funds have paid for a specialist coach to travel to each major regatta with the competitors, a huge breakthrough in terms of rising up the world rankings and gaining self-confidence.
"My coach David Howlett has been the single biggest factor in my improvements over the past 12 months," said Finn gold medallist Percy. "Having him around whilst I'm racing and using his knowledge to do better the next day rather than next month has been so important."
Howlett, never a man to suffer fools or the insufficiently gifted, is equally positive about Percy. "He's got stamina, tactical ability and everything else you need. He can be as good as he wants to. There are no limits," said Howlett, himself a former world-class Finn sailor.
Adequately funded for the first time, superbly managed by a team of coaches and supported by an army of capable volunteers, the whole three-year campaign for Percy and his teammates has been a model for British sport of how to get things right.
In the spring of 1997 the RYA were able to announce that they had £1.7m a year for their elite sailors. Obviously with the Olympic trials still three years away the money had to spread across various competitors and, just as importantly, coaches.
"We have worked hard over the last four years to spend the money effectively and get as many sailors as possible into the medal zone," said RYA Olympic coach Derbyshire. He has been under no illusions that if the cash produced few or little results on the medals table it could dry up quickly.
On a chart in Derbyshire's office is a stark fact: three sailing medals was Britain's best sailing performance prior to 2000. Score less than that and the future goes back to jumble sales and charity balls. In the event Britain's sailors have far surpassed that tally on the bright blue waters of Sydney Harbour.
Where does the money go? Most of it goes to the sailors themselves. For the first time there is cash for a world-class sailor to train and compete year-round at all the top international events without worrying about how to pay his or her way. The basic allowance has been a little over £20,000 a year, with adjustments according to a sailor's personal commitments. On top of that comes all travel and accommodation costs while racing and training overseas.
For a star sailor like Ainslie with personal sponsorship deals from companies like Henri-Lloyd and Audi, it can add up to a fairly handsome living - as long as one doesn't compare it with a young journeyman golfer who is 89th on the European Order of Merit.
However, the funds are closely administered. "Don't get the idea that there's a barrel of cash at RYA HQ and we just nip in for a bagful every few weeks," cautioned Soling keelboat helmsman Andy Beads-worth. "There is a massive amount of paperwork for every penny that you spend, and with a three-man crew and a 28ft boat to be shipped all over the world the amount of paperwork is awesome."
Even with all this support in place and a world championship under his belt, with a year to go Percy was still reluctant to commit himself fully to sailing. With a 2:1 from Bristol University and big money in the City beckoning, he was fond of saying that economics was just as exciting as sailing and more intellectually challenging than charging around in dinghies.
Twelve months at the top of his sport seems to have altered his outlook and he is now determined to make a career in the sport, possibly heading towards the Volvo Race or America's Cup where the challenges of planning and managing a winning campaign are tough enough for most minds.
This has been Britain's most successful British sailing team, with an incredible 50% strike rate. Five of the 10 disciplines will bring home a medal of some colour. Team manager Derbyshire was overwhelmed and optimistic. "I'm obviously delighted for the sailors who have won medals, but just as proud of everyone else as they have all delivered results to their potential and those who haven't medalled here I'm sure will continue their campaigns and achieve their
personal goals in 2004," he said.
"As a team our aim was quite simply to provide a world-class organisation and management structure to produce the best prepared team of any Olympic sport and I'll certainly leave Sydney in a few days feeling like we have achieved that."
KEITH WHEATLEY
Sunday Times
