Confidence high for Patience and Willis as 470 title race looms
by Lindsey Bell, RYA 13 Sep 2014 11:02 BST
12 September 2014
Luke Patience and Elliot Willis at the Aquece Rio - International Sailing Regatta 2014 © Ocean Images
Two-time World Champion Elliot Willis says confidence is high for him and Luke Patience as they head towards their first World Championship as a team, starting on Sunday (14 September) in Santander, Spain.
The Sevenoaks sailor has twice been on the top step of the World Championship podium in the two-person 470 class, in 2006 and 2008 with former helm Nic Asher, but feels 'more confident that ever' having had a successful, albeit whirlwind, six months in the boat together with his Olympic silver medal-winning helm.
"I was having a chat to Luke about it the other day and I was saying I feel more confident than ever going into this one, more prepared and the expectation is there," Willis recounted.
"Winning [the Worlds] before wasn't so much a surprise, but we worked through the week towards it and it came as an expected pleasure but also a little bit of a surprise.
"This time, I feel like we are more ready than ever on the back of the Europeans and a second silver medal in Rio, but we will just see what the week brings I guess. As long as we pull out our best performance we will be up there."
Patience agrees that they are capable of challenging the best in the fleet: "It is just as ever in sport about just producing our best performance to date and the great thing is from this season, Elliot and I know that our best performance is one that challenges to take home gold medals.
"So that's all we need to do at this stage," said the Helensburgh sailor, who admitted he feels an added buzz around this combined ISAF World Championships at which all ten Olympic Classes are present.
"You could argue it is the next most important event after the Olympics and the most prestigious title to take. The eyes of the sailing world are on this regatta and people remember the ISAF World Champions and the medallists, so it is a raised intensity for sure.
"I wish it meant this much every time we raced!"
Olympic silver medallists and 2012 World Champions Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark are likely to be among the contenders in the 470 Women's event, but are tempering expectations after an injury-disrupted season.
"We are definitely excited about the start of our World Championships. We start on Sunday so we still have a few more days to fully get our minds in gear for the big event," Clark explained.
"This event has been what this year has been all about, we have had a few disruptions to our preparations this year but we have arrived in venue fit and healthy which is good.
"We are just looking forward to getting racing and building on the lessons we have learnt from the Europeans in Athens and the Test Event in Rio last month."
Cardiff's Mills admits that winning the World Championship title in 2012 was an 'epic' experience and one they would like to repeat, says but competition will be tough from a number of quarters.
"The difference between coming first and second is huge whereas second and third is still amazing, but winning is just so much better. Obviously it would be amazing to win another World Championships but to be honest we haven't done as much sailing and aren't quite in the place we would like to be, so for us we just need to focus on doing everything we can right and hopefully the result will take care of itself.
"I think there will be a good six boats who could probably win overall so it is going to be a difficult week to even medal let alone win but we are up for the challenge."
Elsewhere in the women's fleet, two-time Olympian Christina Bassadone has dusted off her sailing boots to join Eilidh McIntyre for the event, following Sophie Weguelin's withdrawal on medical grounds.
"Eilidh very kindly gave me a phone call about a week or go a so because poor Sophie is off ill at the moment which is really sad for her that she can't be out here," explained Bassadone, who competed in the 470 with Katherine Hopson at Athens 2004 and with Saskia Clark at the Beijing Games.
"It is great to get back in the boat. I worked out I have done four hours sailing in four years in the 470, so just tapering it down for the big event obviously!" she joked.
"We did a day yesterday and did a few practice races and weren't too shabby and didn't embarrass ourselves too much, so... so far so good."
For McIntyre, who hails from Hayling Island, she's turning the disappointment of not being able to sail with Weguelin in Santander into a learning opportunity
"It has been a difficult few months for us but it could be a blessing in disguise. I think that is how we have got to see it and just take the time and use it wisely to do other things and learn as much as we can about other parts of our campaign,"
"I am just hoping that I can learn a few different ways to sail the boat and get a different perspective of the feel and some different opinions on tactics. Hopefully I will learn a bit more about starting as Christina is really good at it and learn how to do that well and what it feels like to do it well. It has always been a bit of a downfall for us so hopefully that will really help."
British contenders in the 470 Men's and Women's fleets:
Luke Patience / Elliot Willis
Mike Wood / Hugh Brayshaw
Robert Gullan / Sam Brearey
Ben Hazeldine / Rhos Hawes
Hannah Mills / Saskia Clark
Christina Bassadone / Eilidh McIntyre
Amy Seabright / Anna Carpenter
Anna Burnet / Flora Stewart
Jess Lavery / Megan Brickwood
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