Olympic sailing gold medallist at Tamesis Club
by Jim Green 6 Dec 2004 08:11 GMT
Sarah Webb with Brian Southcott and young club members of Tamesis Club © Jim Green
Sarah Webb, who won a sailing gold medal for Britain at the Athens Olympics, was made an honorary member of Tamesis Club at Teddington on Thursday 2 December. More than 80 members and guests had assembled at the club to hear Sarah, who lives in Weybridge and who sailed at Tamesis as a youngster, give a talk on her sailing career.
The Olympic gold medal awarded to her as a member of the crew which won the Yngling class was passed round for everyone to see.
Commodore Jim Green welcomed Sarah as an honorary member of Tamesis and presented her with a club burgee and a copy of the club history.
Sarah (27), started sailing at the age of seven in an Optimist, and took to it with enthusiasm. She was later selected for the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) Youth Worlds in 1995 and 1996 in a Laser Radial, and won the BT Young Sailor of the Year Award. She told how she progressed from Lasers to a 470 and then to match racing in bigger boats. Sarah joined with Shirley Robertson, one of Britain's sailing gold medal winners at the Sydney Olympics, and Sarah Ayton for the Athens games and spent many months of intensive training with the support of the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) before striking gold with a race to spare. She even spent time training as a forklift truck driver so she could launch their boat every day from the marina quayside.
Sarah was introduced by Tamesis Club member Brian Southcott, three times national Champion in the Merlin Rocket class and former chairman of the Royal Yachting Association who, as International Sailing Federation Hon Treasurer, was involved in the organisation of the Olympic sailing programme and who provided commentaries on the sailing in Athens.