Cowes Week video report

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Ben Ainslie

ALTHOUGH Great Britain produces endless numbers of quality athletes, when it comes to the Olympics we never clear up the medals in quite the same way as the Americans, Russians or Australians.

The Americans dominate the track events, the Russians rule the gymnastics and the Aussies are the force to be reckoned with in the swimming pool.

We get the odd gold here, the odd silver there, but never before have we been known across one discipline as the undisputed masters.

Until now.

Times are changing, and Britian's hopes of medal glory are pinned on a small band of athletes who between them have the talent, skill and determination to wipe the floor with their competitors.

Yes, it's our sailing team - eighteen of our country's finest, all of whom have every chance of coming back with a medal.

Although sailing is one of the lesser televised sports, Skandia Team GBR will carry the hopes of the nation when they take to the water in the Chinese resort of Qingdao.

And leading the way will be a host of Hampshire sailors who make up more than half of the squad.

The most prolific of them all undoubtedly is Ben Ainslie, returning to the Olympics with his fourth medal in sight.

The 31-year-old, from Lymington, became a household name overnight when he scooped a silver at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics in the Laser class aged just 19.

From then on he has dominated any class he has turned his hand to, picking up gold in the Laser four years later and gold again in the Finn class in Athens.

Already the most successful British Olympic sailor in history, Ainslie will be looking to cement his reputation forever with a third gold in Qingdao.

One who has also enjoyed medal glory is fellow Lymingtonian Nick Rogers, who with crew Joe Glanfield picked up silver at the Athens games.

It's no secret that Rogers and Glanfield are out for gold in the 470 class this year, and after winning the Olympic test regatta earlier in the year they enter the Games as favourites.

Southampton's Iain Percy took gold in the Finn class in Atlanta in 2000 - and he's back in the two-man Star class on the hunt for gold again.

Percy, with his sailing partner Andrew Simpson, has notched up some impressive results in the lead-up to the Games and will be a force to be reckoned with.

At the helm of arguably the quickest racing machine on the water - the Olympic Tornado catamaran - is the Isle of Wight's Leigh MacMillan, crewed by his Southampton teammate Will Howden.

MacMillan, 27, came 13th in the 2004 games, but the pair scored a fourth place in the Olympic test regatta and have the talent to go all the way in Beijing.

Christina Bassadone takes the helm of the ladies 470.

Travelling to their first Olympics are Lymington's Pippa Wilson, Ben Rhodes from Southampton, Helena Lucas from Southampton and Penny Clark from Lee on Solent.

Along with Sarah Ayton and Sarah Webb, the 22-year-old Wilson makes up one third of the unstoppable Yngling team which denied Britain's most successful female Olympic sailor, Shirley Robertson, a place at this year's Games.

Rhodes crews the high-performance 49er dinghy for Steve Morrison, while Clark saw off tough competition to win her place in the Laser Radial class.

Lucas will look to take home her first Paralympic gold in the 2.4mR class.

All eighteen of the sailors have the potential to return home with medals and it is to them that we look for hope, inspiration and glory.

There's no doubting that past greats such as Seb Coe, Steve Ovett, Linford Christie, Kelly Holmes and Sally Gunnell are being replaced by the likes of Ainslie and Rogers as the sports stars who are capturing the nation's imagination and fuelling optimism that Britain can win in world-class competition.

AS the countdown to the 2008 Beijing Games continues, the Daily Echo's sailing expert Will Carson looks at why all eyes are on Great Britain's sailing to bring home the medals.

4:54pm Monday 4th August 2008

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