Scotland’s top sailor Luke Patience is keeping his feet on the ground as London 2012 draws ever-nearer... (Ed. 43)

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EDITION 43 - SUMMER 2010

Luke remaining patient

Luke in action with Stuart Bithell

Scotland’s top sailor Luke Patience is keeping his feet on the ground as London 2012 draws ever-nearer...

Edinburgh sailor Luke Patience insists he will become a silent assassin as he and Stuart Bithell bid to board the sole 470 boat at the London 2012 Olympics.

Patience and Bithell are just one of a handful of world class British 470 pairs, including double world champions Nic Asher and Elliot Willis, Ben Saxton and David Kohler and Matt Mee and Ian Dobson.

The one and only British spot for London 2012 is currently wide open with first-choice pairing Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield – who claimed Olympic silver in 2004 and 2008 – having gone their separate ways.

Patience, 24, and Bithell underlined their cause by claiming silver at last year’s 470 World Championships but finished eighth and as the second British crew home this year in Holland.

But having cast his eye over the British and world competition at last week’s Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta in Weymouth – venue for both the Olympic an Paralympic sailing events – Patience is keeping his findings a secret.

“The target for Sail for Gold was a tricky one because everyone is thinking about London 2012, so the main thing for us really was to just go and get a flavour of things,” said Patience.

“We wanted to get a flavour of how the foreigners race in the English conditions, how we race in the conditions and who is good and who isn’t. It was very much a bit of a spy mission.

“It is difficult though, because everyone is trying to race but at the same time everyone has got one eye on the competitions and it is quite tricky.

“Everyone is quite defensive and nobody really lets anything slip and everyone is looking at everyone. It is a funny old game right now and I am sure it will get more like that as 2012 gets closer.

“Stuart and I are still a really young team and we are the newest team certainly in the British fleet and probably most of the foreigners but we have our sights set on 2012.”

Patience and Bithell may have been upstaged by Asher and Willis at the World Championships last month as they finished eighth to their fourth but the duo turned the tide in Weymouth.

With the Sail for Gold Regatta also acting as the seventh and final leg of the ISAF World Cup series Patience and Bithell were left toasting bronze on the Olympic waters.

Asher and Willis were one place behind in fourth with the next British crew, Saxton and Kohler, sixth but Patience admitted he would have been happy even if he hadn’t climbed the podium.

“We would have been more than happy to finish the regatta in the top ten with decent points and a good knowledge of what we wanted to take from the week,” he added.

“But we ended up with a medal and a lot of knowledge so we are really pleased. We thought we were good enough to come away with a medal but we were just happy enough to sit and watch and learn about everything in Weymouth.”

Story courtesy of Sportsbeat

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