Itchenor Sailing Club members selected for Team GB at Rio Olympics
by Rebecca Oldfield 14 Mar 2016 21:00 GMT
14 March 2016
Charlotte Dobson & Sophie Ainsworth on day 7 at the Aquece Rio – International Sailing Regatta © Ocean Images / British Sailing Team
Itchenor Sailing Club members, Sophie Ainsworth and Ben Saxton have been selected to compete for Team GB at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Long-standing member of the sailing club, Sophie Ainsworth and her partner Charlotte Dobson, who finished fifth at the 2015 World Championships, will make their Olympic debuts in the 49erFX, a new event for this summer's Games.
Sophie Ainsworth, 26 commented, "I was absolutely ecstatic when we got the phone call to say we were going to the Olympic Games. There is a lot of work to do between now and then, we have a lot of goals that we need to work on so that we are really confident going into the Games. The Olympics only happen once every four years so it's really special to us and we just want to go in as confident as we can so we can perform on that day."
Also making their Olympic debut is 2016 European Champions Ben Saxton and Nicola Groves, who will be entering the Nacra 17 mixed multihull event, which also sees its first Olympic Games outing this year.
Ben and Nicola started their Olympic campaign successfully with a win at both the Sailing World Cup in Miami in January 2015 and the European Championships in Barcelona last October.
Currently ranked 5th in the Nacra 17 world rankings and the best GBR boat, Ben Saxton, 25 commented, "I'm pretty excited to do two things towards the Games, one is get a medal for Nic and me, and the other is to support the rest of the sailing team as much as possible."
The two Itchenor members were part of a selection of five sailors that will join those chosen in September.
Follow their Olympic campaign at www.itchenorsc.co.uk