British Sailing Blog - Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark
470 Girls, JAN 2012 (25 weeks to go....)
2012 arrives in style!!!, The fireworks in London were quite something to behold when I think of the year ahead. It sent butterflies into my stomach and put a huge grin on my face just at the thought of what was to come this year.....
Sas and I kicked off the year how we mean to go on (and I'm sure how many others meant their year to go on!) with a fitness boost. We however, got to go to St Moritz with 11 other members of Skandia Team GBR, on a cross country ski camp. The idea was that it would be a lot safer than downhill skiing and obviously very good for the indurance side of our fitness.....well the fact that the skis are about as thick as a 2 pence piece and as slippery as a deer walking on ice, would mean that the amount of falling over done was not that safe!!
In all seriousness though we had a fantastic week getting in 4 hours a day training, as well as some arduous snowball fights and lots of hot chocolate drinking. We came back fully reved up and ready to nail our fitness training programme. It felt 100% like we had got off on the right foot for the year.
So, a few days off, mostly spent with aches, pains and a lot of eating, and we were packing again! Heading off to Miami for the first World Cup Regatta of 2012. This was an important regatta for us as although it wasn't long after the World Championships, there was a smaller fleet (much like the Olympics) and we felt it was important to keep the momentum going into 2012 and in our campaign.
The training was great, we had amazing weather, with lots of time gained in the gym as well as on the water with our training partners. Lots of little technical bits and bobs were trialled with some definite areas to move forward with....which is always exciting.
Miami regatta was an invaluable one for us as a team, we learned a lot about our strengths and weaknesses. We felt like we make a lot of mistakes during the week, however despite these, we held it together in the medal race and managed to take away the silver medal. Although this was a bit disappointing, actually when we look back at the week, it was a really good result considering how much we felt we can improve......
So, the new boat (the Games boat) has arrived and is in the process of being sorted out so it's racing ready. We are also packing up ready to go off to Palma for our February training, hopefully it will warm up and the snow wont be about when we arrive.....!
Thank you so much for all your support.
3 January 2012
Happy New Year Everyone! We hope you have all had time to enjoy the festive period.
We are just back in Weymouth after what seems like a whistle stop tour over the last month. We have returned home World Champion Silver Medallists and are definitely pleased with the end result, even if the method left a bit to be desired.
We knew our preparation for Perth was slightly compromised as we opted to go to Australia late in favour of an extended autumn training period in Weymouth and then a break in November. Other teams were training hard in the Worlds venue; as for most nations it was an important regatta for Olympic selection. So when we hit Perth 10 days out from the regatta, ready to train hard, many teams were winding down their training in favour of getting some pre regatta rest. It was something we managed well and with the help of the other British teams had a small training group that enabled us to get what we needed done.
The regatta started with a stormy offshore day and the week would continue with variable and mixed conditions with the ‘Freemantle Doctor' only showing itself occasionally and not very strong.
Our lack of pre regatta racing really showed as we struggled to get off the start line, which made the first part of the race difficult. Once at the windward mark though we raced well, with great downwind speed and good decisions throughout the rest of the races we managed to pull back to top 10 results avoiding any disastrous scores. As the regatta went on and others posted some high scores, we slowly climbed up the leader board.
The points for medal race were tight, although we sat in 3rd only 4 points separated us from 6th, so our plan was to race confidently, back ourselves and not try and protect what we had- with 4 boats in the mix it would have been too complicated. The plan worked and a confident start saw us to the windward mark in 1st and able to extend throughout the rest of the race. Results from the other teams meant that we got the Silver.
Sat at the beginning of 2012 I don't think either of us can quite believe what we pulled off this year. Our first day in a 470 together was 17th February and since then we have won 2 silvers at Worlds Cup, a European bronze, Test Event and World Championship Silver and most importantly selection for London 2012. We have had some great results in 2011 but are fully aware that this is the year that counts. Excitingly though we have a huge list of improvements to make before we start racing on the 2nd August. And it begins now, this evening we are off to St Moritz for a cross country ski & fitness camp (downhill & snowboarding strictly banned- boooo!)
We would like to thank everyone at PHB for your support this year, at times it was quite a huge and daunting task but your support has definitely helped us this far. For more regular updates you can follow us on Facebook or Twitter @470girls
December 2011
We have been in Perth a week and I don't want to sound like we are complaining but it is HOT! 32 degrees and lots of flies. As is usual with every venue we go to Sod's Law states that you never get the conditions the week before the regatta that you experience during the regatta, and even Perth with its fabled ‘Freemantle Doctor' is delivering on this front. At the moment the synoptic weather situation sitting over us is not creating the ideal conditions for the sea breeze to generate, so instead of it blowing 20+ knots in the afternoons we have had very light and shifty winds.
This is obviously not ideal to evaluate our windy weather sailing or equipment which is one of our main goals in Perth but it is still really valuable when thinking about Weymouth next year as our Olympic medal races will be run tucked up right against the shore on the Nothe course where the wind is equally as shifty and random.
This World Championships is spread over 2 weeks and the racing actually starts today for some of the fleets (470 men, Finn, RSX Women, Laser Radial). We start racing on the 12th December, which is day 7 of the regatta. It's quite an unusual atmosphere as we are still in our training phase so quite relaxed but are at breakfast with people that are about to go racing as part of their Olympic trials. It is important that all the action going on around us doesn't distract us and we focus on what we need to achieve this week because the same will be true at the Olympics.
25 October 2011
October has been a quieter month for us after the excitement of September and the selection announcement. Getting early selection was a huge deal to us and was by no means a forgone conclusion. We had a great series of results over the season but thought that the fact we were a new team might count against us, so we were fully preparing ourselves for the battle to continue on to December's World Championships in Perth, AUS.
So after a showbizzy time up in London it was time to get down to work and sail hard in Weymouth. If the Olympic Games were tomorrow we would be happy with our race equipment but we are currently testing other equipment to check if there is a performance gain to be made. Early October was gorgeous and sunny but as the month has gone on the water is steadily getting colder and we can definitely feel winter is on its way. Currently Weymouth seems to be the windiest place in the world, but it is great practise for our Perth Worlds, which is a notoriously windy venue due to the 'Freemantle Doctor'. Off the water we are in the gym and working hard, with Perth being windy, there are gains to be made in getting heavier and being stronger.
The next 2 days promise to be supremely dull though as I go back to driving lessons in an attempt to pass my trailer test so I can tow trailers over a ton. Fingers crossed!!
Thank you all at PHB for supporting us in our journey, we hope to make you proud.
