Yachting: The silver lining effect

By JULIE ASH

Team New Zealand's America's Cup loss may boost New Zealand's medal chances at this year's Olympics as several professional sailors return to the mix.

New Zealand have so far qualified in seven out of a possible 11 Olympic sailing classes.

Trials begin today to determine which New Zealanders will sail in five of those classes -

the men's 470, women's 470, Laser, Europe and men's Mistral.

The Finn representative will be selected after a series of regattas in Europe.

Team New Zealand's loss of the Auld Mug has seen skipper Dean Barker turn his focus to securing the Finn spot while his former America's Cup team-mates Hamish Pepper and Dan Slater are in contention for the Laser spot.

Adam Beashel has teamed up with former OneWorld sailor Ed Smyth to try to qualify New Zealand a place in the 49ers.

"The America's Cup, although it was fantastic to have it here, it actually was pretty tough on our Olympic programme because you lost so many people," says Yachting New Zealand's high performance manager Peter Lester.

"So to have a few of them come back is great."

Lester says the Olympics are regarded as the benchmark of sailing.

"The America's Cup is not necessarily a good measure of how good people are. This is," he says of the Olympics.

"Hence the reason the guys have come back to it. It is just disappointing we didn't get more - and by that I mean the likes of [Oracle sailors] Gavin Brady and Craig Monk. They have played around with a Star but I think the demands of Oracle meant it was too difficult for them to do it."

With four sailors securing top-seven positions in their classes at last year's world championships, Lester is optimistic New Zealand can maintain its proud Olympic yachting record, which spans back to 1956 when Peter Mander and Jack Cropp won New Zealand's first Olympic yachting medal in the Sharpie class.

New Zealand yachties have won 15 medals - making yachting the country's second most successful Olympic sport behind athletics.

But like the America's Cup, those who have plenty of dosh are becoming increasingly difficult to beat.

"England are spending millions and millions of pounds," Lester says. "They will be the top yachting nation at the Olympics, as they were in Sydney, I have no doubt about that. But it relates to how much dough they put in.

"We probably overachieve for the amount of dollars and effort that goes in to be honest," he says.

New Zealand qualified in all 11 Olympic classes in 2000.

With seven already secured for Athens, Lester is confident New Zealand could qualify in a further two or three - the 49ers, Yngling and Tornado.

"There is a real disparity in the sport when you look at the way we qualify for the Olympics in terms of fleet sizes. In the Laser class you have 30 countries, whereas in the Star, Yngling and Tornado there are just 15, which makes it a hell of a lot harder to qualify in those classes."

And looking ahead to Athens?

"Whatever our expectation is, let's not underestimate how tough it is," Lester says. "I think there is huge potential but you need a bit of luck. Athens is such a difficult venue.

"But we have four classes in the top seven in the world at the moment, which should mean, with a bit of careful training, good preparation and good health you might be able to convert one of those."

Top-ranked sailors

Sarah Macky - 6th in Europe

Jon-Paul Tobin - 7th in men's Mistral

Barbara Kendall - 2nd in women's Mistral

Andrew Murdoch - 7th in Laser.