Windsurfing: Bay's Headey breezes into the youth Olympics

Tauranga windsurfer Coral Headey will represent New Zealand at the Youth Olympics.Photo/Supplied

Coral Headey is a major step closer to her ultimate goal of representing New Zealand at the Olympic Games.

This week the Otumoetai College Year 11 student was selected for the Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games to be held on Lake Jinniu, Nanjing, China, in August.

Headey, 15, is the sole Kiwi representative in the girls' windsurfer Techno 293 class.

The Tauranga Yacht and Power Boat Club member qualified in February after winning the single New Zealand qualification spot at the Oceania Championships in Manly, North Shore, but had to wait for the official confirmation.

Now she wants to prove her worth against the best young athletes in the world.

"It was probably a goal of mine two years ago when we first heard of the Youth Olympics and we realised I was the right age for it," Heady said. "I felt really good about myself when I achieved that goal and it is something I have been looking forward to for two years.

"The team spirit and experiencing another culture I think is going to be really amazing, and meeting new people is one of the coolest things. Seeing other people in different sports and how they do the high performance side of their sport will be really interesting."

Competition will be held at Lake Jinniu, a large body of water more than an hour from the Olympic village, in conditions Headey is used to.

To prepare for the expected marginal to light conditions, Heady is on a strength building programme and is training with the much larger Olympic rig to improve her conditioning.

Heady is pleased double Olympic medallist Bruce Kendall will travel to China with the group.

"He has had a lot of experience in the Olympic thing so I am looking forward to him coming along. I am also training with Herve Pruvost here in Tauranga, who runs coaching through Bopsat (Bay of Plenty Sailing Academy Trust). They sponsor me and recently gave me a grant to help with going to China, which is really good."

Thanks to the trust, Heady now has her own gear to race in - all her previous success, including two national titles, has come on borrowed gear.

Heady still needs some help to fund her trip to China and the ISAF Youth Worlds that precede them in Portugal. Information on how to donate is at fundrazr.com/campaigns/3iuv6, and to track her progress go to facebook.com/coralandfinn.