Sterritt aiming to get back on track for Games after under-par Worlds showing
◆ Kingussie sailor believes his set-up with 49er partner Peters will still come good as they prepare for Olympic debut
Kingussie sailor Fynn Sterritt still trusts in his Olympic process despite a disappointing showing at the World Championships.
The 35-year-old and 49er partner James Peters, already selected by Team GB for Paris 2024, fell to 10th place in the global gathering in Lanzarote.
The result was below the high standards of the pair who won European bronze in 2022 but Sterritt believes their setup will still come good at the Games.
“We’re pretty gutted about the outcome and it’s definitely not what we’d hoped for,” said Sterritt.
“We’ve got our minds firmly on Marseille and the Games and adapting our equipment and style for that. With that, there are differences between the two venues and as much as we wanted to deliver in Lanzarote, we didn’t quite have the package to deliver.
“We didn’t know that at the time and we figured it out as the week went on. we’ d hope to be ahead of the curve, so we’ve learned some tough lessons.
“Having said that, there were some really good moments and we’ve got to hang onto those. At times when you feel like you’ve sailed below your ability, it’ s easy to get down and feel that it’s all bad."
Peters was a little less upbeat, saying: “There’s a feeling of repeated underperformance. It’s psychologically quite hard to remain upbeat when you keep telling yourself that you’re better than the results you’re getting.
“The reality is we’re not on track. The point of these events is to see whether you’re on track. If you are, you crack on and if you’re not, you need to change things.
“We obviously haven’t got to the point of fully diagnosing all of that but we do feel like we need to make some major changes.”
Sterritt and Peters made a solid start to the regatta, staged in familiar surroundings with lanzaro te acting as a world-leading training venue.
The pair lost control on the third day of racing and, beguiled by sudden 40and 50-degree wind shifts, dropped down the field.
“It felt like the first day was a bit of a missed opportunity,” said Sterritt. “We could have attacked harder at the start and in the last few days, things weren’t quite going for us.
“We felt a little bit dictated to and never in the right place. We weren’t the only ones, lots of good teams also struggled and underperformed but it’s about your own performance and your own expectations.”
There are a number of other key events before the Olympics, including the Trofeo Princesa Sofia later this month.
Peters and Sterritt have no time to waste with their Team GB debuts set for July 28 at Marseille Marina.
“We’re not going to go to the Olympics as favourites,” said Sterritt. “There are a lot of boats who have been up and down, like we have, and there are boats who have been more consistent and they will go in as the favourites to medal.
“We’ve had so much experience and we spent the last cycle ahead of some of these folks. They’ve passed us at the moment and we need to refind that spark that we have.
“It feels quite bad at the moment but I don’t think it will take much of a shift for thatmomentumtostartbuilding again. Things can quite quickly snowball in a positive direction and there are a lot of things we can work on. Once we get those bits right, we’ll be back in a good place.”
At the Games, one of the British crew’s biggest weapons will be their collective experience. Having campaigned together for a decade, they know each other inside out, both on and off the water.
And in a sport where every decision can be the difference between triumph and disaster, being on the same wavelength is vital.
“In some stuff, we are quite similar,” said Sterritt.
“The way we view risk is quite similar, which helps in sailing. A lot of it is about those risk and reward choices and in that respect, we are really aligned.
“We’ve been doing it for so long, we’ve had some great moments and some difficult moments. That sort of trust gets stronger when you’ve been through those experiences, we’ ve had that positive reinforcement and had the chance to reflect on when it gets hard, which I’m sure it will during the Games. We’ll have those moments to look back on and remember.
“One of the hardest things from what we hear at the Olympics is bringing your level. Lots of people get overawed by the occasion. We’re really lucky in the UK that we have that history and that runs throughout our squad and our team. Our coach, Ben
Rhodes, coached Dylan, and Stu last time. He competed in two Olympic Games himself, so we’ve got that direct input into our campaign. And then in the wider squad, there is a huge amount of experience from previous medallists that we can use in the lead-up.”
One crew in particular stands out above the rest, Dutch duo Bart Lambreix and Floris van de Werken, who won three straight world titles before taking silver in Lanzarote.
Sterritt readily admits that they are crew everyone is chasing but the British pair are not going to make it easy for them.
“Those Dutch guys are the guys to beat, they are threetime world champions for a reason,” he added.
“They can turn it on when it matters. They will be hard to beat. But if anyone is up to it, we are. I think this is probably the first Games for the 49er for a long time where there aren’t any previous medallists, a lot of guys have moved on. All the guys from the podium in tokyo have retired. that leaves the door open for anyone.
“The Dutch definitely go in as favourites but there are a few other boats that aren’t far behind them, and we think we are one of them. We are up for the fight, and we can lean on all the history we have together and past success.”
All the guys from the podium in Tokyo have retired. That leaves the door open for anyone