iSporter and ace sailor Rohini Rau shares with us her experiences of sailing in Europe in preparation for the 2012 London Olympics.
The last two months have been quite hectic. It began with the Laser European Championship in Tallin, Estonia. This historic town hosted the 1980 Olympics and this explains the world class sports facilities. Interestingly, in thirty years this was the first big sailing championship! Frankly, it was one of the best run events I have ever attended. This is a reflection of the organization both on water and on land. Near perfect! We managed to finish 10 out of the scheduled 12 races in challenging conditions with winds ranging from 5 to 20 knots.
I must admit that I was unprepared for this championship as I was still recovering from a wrist injury and added to this I had very few days to acclimatize before the championship. The temperature at 3 degrees was too cold and this made it very difficult to concentrate on racing. However, the hot food provided at the end of every day’s racing was a welcome boon to all of us ravenous frozen sailors. The winner in the Olympic Laser Radial was from Croatia –Tina Mihelic.
I then spent time with my training partner Anna Aile from Latvia who took me to her home and played tour guide to one of the loveliest parts of Eastern Europe…. Latvia!
After this little break it was time to head to Kiel in Germany for the keenly contested Kieler Woche. This week long regatta is part of a festival that happens in the town of Kiel about an hour away from Hamburg. I stayed on site in a most unusual tent which provided me with my own room with cooking facilities and a foldable bed!
Compared to the Europeans in Estonia, I personally thought the organization could have been much better. It was disappointing to find that after so many years of racing in Kiel the race organization was still unprepared. There were drifting marks which made the course much longer than planned, making our races last for 1 and a half hours. I was in the yellow fleet and we finished way after the blue fleet that started about 15 minutes after us. In the end we actually sailed 3 much longer races than the rest of them. Also on the final day of racing when the wind dropped to below 5 knots and we were nearing the finish time limit of 75 minutes, they let us sail the entire race and then abandoned it just before the last leg.
We finished only 6 races in very fluky conditions, but I guess that is Kiel for you. Sunny, rainy; windy and no wind!
The next regatta was the Laser Radial World Championship held in Largs, Scotland. There were 115 competitors taking part. Largs is an amazing place where there is wind almost throughout the year. But it didn’t prove true during the days of the regatta. There was either too much wind or too little wind to sail. The first day of racing had challenging conditions with winds up to 20 knots gusting 25 knots. The rest of the days had a mixture of light and gusty conditions. It also included a day of waiting on water for nearly 6 hours and no racing.
All in all it was a great championship. I managed to get my best result at a Worlds finishing 20th in the Silver fleet taking India to the 34th position! 39 Countries can qualify for the Olympics, so I am hoping to better my rank and qualify India for the 2012 Olympics at the 2011 World Championship in Perth, Australia next year which will be the first qualifiers for the 2012 Olympics.
I am now in India sailing the Laser Radial at the 25th National Championship in Hyderabad. So far there are around 110 entries, the largest by far. I am sailing the radial after nearly 3 years at the Hussain Sagar lake, I hope to perform well and hopefully not get sick again (due to the polluted lake). Reining national champions Rajesh Choudhury and BK Raout from AYN are strong contenders. There are 7 women entries this time which is quite encouraging. I will soon let you know how this regatta pans out!
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a guest
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... Brilliant! I am sure you will be the first Indian woman sailor to make it to the Olympics! Fair winds!  |
a guest
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... Wow! I couldn't imagine that there is someone putting so much effort in this type of event. Best of luck to you, I hope your hard work brings a hope to India!!! you are awesome! |
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