Cowes Week video report

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PREPARING FOR BEIJING: Christina Bassadone, right, and Saskia Clark on the water.

SOUTHAMPTON sailor Christina Bassadone admits she will not be happy if she returns from the Beijing Olympics without a medal.

The 26-year-old, who was born and learned to sail in Chichester, is competing in the 470 class with racing partner Saskia Clark, of Weymouth, writes GORDON SIMPSON.

This will be the second Olympics for Bassadone, after she finished seventh in the 2004 Games in Athens, along with previous crewmate Katherine Hopson.

After Greece, she joined forces with Clark and the duo have had a successful few years together.

They are being tipped as another of Team GB's medal prospects on the water this summer.

Bassadone has no problems admitting that those are exactly her hopes.

"A medal (is what we're aiming for), it doesn't matter what colour, but if I don't come home from China with a medal I would be feeling pretty unhappy," she said.

"It would just be incredible, a dream come true to be standing on top of the podium in China."

Bassadone was a member of the British 420 youth squad at 14 and won the Ladies World Championships in 2000.

Her biggest achievement to date came in the 2005 ISAF World Championships, when she and Clark took silver.

Since then, they have been medallists at six major events, including the 2007 ISAF World Championships, where they claimed bronze.

The pair have been busy building up to the Olympics and have put in a lot of hard work before heading to the Qingdao Sailing Complex.

Bassadone expects a difficult challenge due to the conditions in China.

"There's a lot of things to do in an Olympic campaign and the important thing in sailing is timing the venue in the right conditions, which means training abroad and trying to replicate those conditions," she said.

"For example, in Qingdao, we're expecting strong tides and light winds and choppy waters, so this springtime we've been training in Valencia, which has had predominately light winds and choppy waters."

The expected lack of wind in Qingdao could test the nerves and patience of the competitors.

"The greatest challenge is that it's expected to be a light wind event and it could be a lot of time hanging around and waiting for wind," she said. "There's the nerves of waiting to go racing. Let's say you have a bad day and then you may not sail for two days and it's how you deal with that and come back fighting, rather than stewing on it.

"Likewise, you could be sitting at the top of the leaderboard and yet you may be waiting around for racing and coping with the nerves of can you stay up there?' and, in a sense, the boredom of just waiting to go.

"Usually, you come to a regatta and you're just knocking out races, whereas there it's very different.

"I found that hard at the pre-Olympics last year. We had a couple of days where we didn't race and the whole team is sitting in the container, twiddling thumbs and trying to keep each other entertained and amused."

10:59am Wednesday 6th August 2008

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