The Wang-Hansen brothers at the Delta Lloyd Regatta

The Wang-Hansen brothers at the Delta Lloyd Regatta © Delta Lloyd Regatta

The 2014 Delta Lloyd Regatta is a family affair for the Wang-Hansen brothers from Norway. Elder brother Aleksander Wang-Hansen (NOR), age 32, is competing in the Paralympic Sonar class, while younger brother Sebastian, age 25, is competing in the RS:X.

Aleksander Wang-Hansen has already competed in four Paralympic Games since 2000, where he placed 12th. Since then he has improved at every Games until he finally won a bronze medal in 2012 with crew Marie Solberg and Per Eugen Kristiansen. They were world champions in 2012 and are currently ranked World No.1.

After four Paralympics, what keeps him sailing at this level and does he think he still has more to achieve, and perhaps another medal in 2016?

"There is always something to improve. Always further to go. There's always one more step to take. Delving a little deeper. A little more to work on. I had one crew in Sydney, and we changed that just before Athens so didn't have much time to work for that, so it didn't go too well, but we then had four years to prepare before Beijing. And then we made one more change for London in 2009, and that's the same crew we have now."

"We work on many things. The technical side, such as boat handling, we work on a lot at home and then when we meet other boats we work on boat speed and racing practice. At the moment we have been trying to develop some new sails. And then we like to get the others to line up and do some speed work."

He is quite focussed on his goals for 2016. "The goal we set for ourselves is to run the perfect campaign, to answer all the questions we have asked ourselves. How the team can work, how the sails look like and so on, but of course the goal is that once we have done all that we can do, it shouldn't be possible to be better than we are. So no one should be able to beat us."

In contrast, younger brother Sebastian took up the Olympic challenge in the RS:X in 2005 and qualified for his first Olympics in 2012, where he placed 24th. He credits his older brother as providing the inspiration to journey down this path. "My brother inspired me to start in the RS:X. We were travelling a lot watching him in the Paralympics in Sydney and Athens, and I decided I wanted to start professional sailing as well. All his medals are above the stove back home in the house, so I know what I have to do to reach that."

On his own campaign, he said,"In 2008 I was still learning. I almost couldn't windsurf before 2005, but my goal is of course to do well in Rio. It's getting tougher and tougher in the RS:X fleet at the moment. Everybody is starting to prepare for qualification and Rio. In Norway, there are some youth sailors as well as me but they not there yet; however, they might might come up and give me a challenge."

Sebastian won the ISAF Sailing World Cup in 2012. "I prefer strong winds, everything from 12 knots and above. I think I have improved in the last few months in light winds, but I still have some work to do. I was 14th in Hyères this year with almost all the fleet there. My goal for this week is to make the medal race."

On being with his brother at the major events. "We have own own separate schedules but like here we stay together in the same house and try to hang out if we are at the same place, but it's not always like this." Aleksander added, "These events are almost the only time I get to see my brother. We are always out travelling somewhere. We stay together if it's convenient, if our sailing is close together. Here we have a big house and we are sailing at the same place so it's nice."

What next for Aleksander and his crew? "We'll have to talk about what comes next after Rio, but I think there's a chance my home club in Oslo is bidding for the world championships in 2017, so I will probably have to sail that. But beyond that, we'll see. We're getting old."

Does he have any experience to hand down to his younger sibling, "I don't know if there is much more advice I can give him. I think he knows most of it by now. He has been managing his campaign quite well by himself."

www.deltalloydregatta.org