Selected Olympic Team Sailor Sara Winther is competing in the Laser boat at the London 2012 Olympic Games and has given us an update to her progress in 2012 in the lead up the Games. Sara Winther Update: Its that time again when I head over to Europe to begin the European racing season. It has been a busy summer being one of the 12 selected sailors for the New Zealand Olympic team, and finalising plans and getting documents signed in preparation for the Olympics. The year started with the NZ Laser Nationals, which I managed to win the open and womens division for the first time. It was my first time racing in Wellington and it lived up to its reputation. Next up was Sail Auckland. I used this event to get some of my wider support team out of the water with Marko my coach. I again won this event which I really pleased about as I had a bit of an injury leading up to this event, so was happy to get the win in these circumstances. Last week I was in Brisbane coaching six masters sailors at their world champs. This group included my coach in the Masters division, and my training partner Scott Leith in the apprentice masters division. Unfortunately I had to come home half way through the event to get organized for Europe but they all did awesome (possible better) without me! Marko, Scott and also Mike Keeton all are new world champions; so really cool to see them all sail so well. So as I said I am off to Europe, first regatta of the season is the World Cup in Palma, Mallorca, Spain. I did this last and was successful in winning it, so really keen to repeat this performance. Keep an eye out as racing is happening from 31 March until 7 April. As per usual we have a few logistics to get ticked off first before we can go sailing, we fly to Barcelona, pick up cars, get tow bars fitted, then we drive to Valencia, pick up all the boats and then finally catch the ferry to Valencia. This is my 4th time doing this exact routine, so we have things pretty sussed we hope. I am travelling with the two 470 teams which is really great, but I do get picked on for sailing the slow simple boat! Ok, thats all from me, I will be updating just before the event is due to begin. Sara Winther
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