Yachting: Macky relaxed and ready

ATHENS - Sarah Macky could hardly feel more at home if she was climbing on her Europe dinghy on the Waitemata.

Macky starts her second Olympic Games on Saturday just up the road from her beachfront base of the past three months, at the same Agios Kosas venue where she snared a bronze medal at the Athens build-up regatta a year ago.

In a sport which has produced its fair share of New Zealanders mounting the dais, Macky, 24, has genuine medal hopes, along with more illustrious team-mates, Barbara Kendall and Dean Barker.

The secret could well be the surroundings.

While they've been working overtime on the water, the yachting team have been living in comfort off it, in a plush high-rise apartment a few minutes down the road.

"It's a great environment, a bit like Newmarket but with more shops and more atmosphere. The team's feeling really good, we've really jelled," said Macky, the 1997 world junior champion.

Things are so comfortable that Macky has already made the tough decision to miss the opening ceremony on Friday, fearing that a long night finishing well past midnight would be poor preparation for the opening day of competition 36 hours later.

On the coast it was picture-postcard stuff again yesterday, far removed from the concrete jungle surrounding the impressive main stadium 45 minutes away.

Macky jousted with her Europe-class rivals in light winds on the water, then emerged on shore to 30C temperatures as Athenians flocked to the nearby beaches.

The biggest challenge facing Macky is to move on from her disappointing ninth placing at last month's world championships in Sardinia, which dropped her world ranking from fifth to eighth.

Nothing went right off the Italian coast, and Macky felt all the luck went against her.

"I learned a lot there. We've made big changes to the rig and I've noticed an improvement."

Macky finished ninth in Sydney four years ago, but felt better for the experience and was eyeing a top-three placing this time.

"I feel I've done everything I can, and am as well prepared as I could be.

"There are heaps of nerves, it's the real thing, it's huge. But there's only so much you can do and there's no point worrying about it."


- NZPA