Our press interview in the La Valette Lounge at MIA
After a long and intensive 10 days of training it was time to drop our coach, Kolja Volkers, off at the airport and take a little breather. The training was quite tough since for the better part of it a strong SouthEaster was blowing kicking up 2m high waves and gusts well above the 20kts. Moreover the breather isn’t for that long because this evening in comes our other coach, Max Groy, a former 49er sailor who we use as a technical expert.
As we had a little chat in the La Valette Lounge at the Malta International Airport, a few journalists came to ask us some questions and we were forced to reveal our programme running up to the Olympic Qualifiers. With counsel from Kolja, we have decided to give the 1st Qualifiers in Perth a miss. Due to Benji’s injured knee, we think it much more prudent to remain in Malta and use November and December for light sailing and a good sports physio recovery programme for Benji’s knee rather than going to Australia and face the risk of worsening his injury.
Thanks, to MIA’s support during September and October we managed to put in some good hard hours which have really raised our standard. The results from the Italian Nationals clearly show that. So we now plan to spend November and December building back Benji’s strength. If MIA were to continue to support us into the new year, which we are currently discussing, we plan 3 intensive training camps for the months of January, February and March. Each camp would be two weeks long and the first two will be in Malta, hopefully with some training partners coming over from Italy. The camp in March will take place in Palma de Majorca where we will have our first big international regatta of 2012 later on in April.
We also talked about trying to promote Malta as a training destination for Northern European Sailing teams. Most Nothern teams fly south for winter training, notably using Cadiz or the Canary Islands. However, as our coach Kolja noticed, “Maltese winter conditions are perfect for training. With a little investment into facilities this could be a big training venue for Northern European countries.” We must have something to offer if, even the Italians would consider leaving their country for it!
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