Sailing: Chris Grube Diary – Part One: The countdown to London 2012 begins

Nov 10 2011 Chester Chronicle

Chester sailor Chris Grube and his partner Nick Rogers are aiming to win a place on the GB team for next year’s London Olympics. The pair’s selection hinges on December’s crunch World Championships in Australia. As the preparations gather pace, Chris, 26, of Mickle Trafford, has agreed to write a weekly diary for The Chronicle charting his progress Down Under.

NICK Rogers and I teamed up in December of last year with one aim – to win gold at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

In the 470 class, the battle for Olympic selection is very tight. Only one boat from each country is able to go to the Games.

My team-mate Nick is a double Olympic silver medallist from Athens and Beijing. The other British teams in the Olympic selection frame include former world champions Nick Asher and Elliot Willis, and my former team-mate Luke Patience with Stuart Bithell. Selection could be the hardest part.

After six months together, unfunded and having sacrificed family and relationships, and with Nick having re-mortgaged his home, we won the first part of the Olympic trials earlier this year.

We were then selected to represent Great Britain at the Olympic test event in August, where we tied for points in fourth and were tantalisingly close to a medal, which could have sealed our selection for 2012.

Should have, could have, would have are all words we hear a lot in sport. But none of them matter. Where we go from here matters.

This year’s 470 class World Championships begin in Perth, Australia, in December and everything for us is geared toward winning there.

If we race our best in Perth, we’ll win, and selection will come.

Perth is said to be a windy venue, and this has played a part in our choice of equipment, training partners and where we train.

As I write, we have just finished an epic week of training in huge winds and waves, off on the Isle of Wight, to replicate Perth.

Next time I’ll be in Perth. We have a new boat being shipped from Auckland, so my task for the week is to put together a world championship-winning boat!

You can sponsor Chris and Nick at www.gb470gold.co.uk.