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Sarah Ayton: Looking for medal repeat
When I decided to start helming and I asked Sarah to join me, there was only one goal and that was to win gold in Beijing.
Sarah Ayton
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As a 12-year-old, Sarah Ayton's Olympic dream was fuelled by watching Sally Gunnell claim gold at the 1992 Barcelona Games.
Twelve years later, she was standing on the top of the rostrum herself after capturing gold as one of the 'three blondes in a boat' at the Yngling event in Athens.
But Olympic success has clearly not dampened the enthusiasm of the 28-year-old, who will be seeking a second consecutive gold when she helms Britain's Yngling entry at Qingdao alongside Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson.
And having led her crew to consecutive Yngling World Championships, there is little reason to doubt that Ayton will not be celebrating another Olympic gold in China.
For Ayton, victory in Athens four years ago alongside Webb and skipper Shirley Robertson only fuelled her desire to repeat the success in China.
With Robertson taking a break after Athens to start a family, Ayton decided to helm her own effort and approached fellow Ashford native Webb to be part of her crew.
Pinnacle
"When I decided to start helming and I asked Sarah to join me, there was only one goal and that was to win gold in Beijing," said Ayton.
"The Olympics is the pinnacle of sport and to win a gold medal shows the world that you're the best at what you do and what you love doing. That's what makes me proud to do it.
"Winning gold is addictive and it was a totally amazing experience in Athens.
"Having my own campaign with my girls is absolutely awesome and we want to go and do it again."
It was by no means an easy road for the two Sarahs, who struggled initially with finding a sponsor to supplement their lottery funding in financing their expensive four-year campaign.
According to Ayton, she contacted nearly 500 companies in search of sponsorship in the year after Athens without success.
At their lowest point, they made an attention-grabbing appeal by hoisting their boat on a crane with a banner pleading 'Sponsor us to Beijing' during Cowes Week in 2005.
Their financial problems were solved when Swiss private bank Mirabaud signed up to become their main sponsors but Ayton's new team failed to sparkle on the water.
With Webb sidelined after undergoing knee surgery, she teamed up with Annie Lush and Lisa McDonald but finished a disappointing seventh at the 2005 Yngling World Championships in Austria.
Webb was back for the World Championships in La Rochelle the following year with Victoria Rawlinson completing the crew. But despite leading at the midway point of the competition, they failed to make the podium, finishing fourth after a disqualification in their final race.
Puzzle
But the addition of former youth world champion Wilson completed the final piece of the puzzle for the Yngling Girls.
They claimed bronze at their first event together, the Sail for Gold Regatta in Weymouth and Portland in October 2006 and have rarely finished off the podium since.
They claimed the World Championships in Portugal last July, with the team of Robertson, Lush and Lucy MacGregor taking bronze, and captured gold at the Olympic test event in Qingdao the following month.
Last September, the British Olympic selectors decided that the Yngling Girls had done enough to merit selection for the 2008 Games, a decision which angered Robertson, who was overlooked in her quest for a third Olympic gold.
But they justified their selection by successfully defending the World Championships in Miami in February, finishing in the top five in the first nine races of the regatta and bagging the title with a day to spare.
And for good measure, they also claimed gold at the European Championships in April.
With the experienced Robertson at the helm, there was no question about who was in charge in the gold medal-winning campaign of 2004 but Ayton is keen to stress that her current crew is the sum of three parts.
"My girls are awesome and I'm very lucky to have two such good crew," said Ayton.
"Sarah is really solid... She's also a physical weapon.
"She's in the middle of the boat so she has to be really strong and she's the strongest middle in the fleet.
"Pippa has added so much to the team and brought us together.
"At the front you need someone who is really dynamic and has got a good feel for the boat. She's working with me to make the boat go fast and in light winds she is the eyes of the boat.
"As a team we all back each other in everything we do and we're all here for the same thing - to win."
