Back on form

After two Laser World Championship wins, Tom Slingsby bombed at the Games. So where is he going now?

Tom Slingsby’s track record through the Laser class has been something of a rollercoaster ride. Prior to the last Olympics the Australians appeared to be among the strongest in the class with the young Slingsby clashing swords with the older and more experienced Michael Blackburn. The upshot was that Slingsby won the World Championships in both 2007 and 2008 and appeared to be the favourite for the Beijing Games. But come the big event in Qingdao he bombed, coming home 22nd.

So what happened? "I still don’t know exactly the right answer," Slingsby told thedailysail. "I just didn’t have any speed and if you don’t have speed you can’t hold lanes and if you can’t hold lanes you can’t go where you want to go and all week I was just forced where I didn’t want to go and even when I thought I was going the right way it wasn’t the right way. So it was one of those disaster weeks. And I think I have been pretty low on confidence for the last year since that."

He admits that Qingdao wasn’t the ideal venue for him. At the test events he finished fourth and ninth, BFD during the medal race in the latter. He admits he could never compete in China with the eventual gold medal winner, Paul Goodison, as he was always heavier. For the Games Slingsby says he was down to 75kg, some 10kg lighter than his normal fighting weight. "I thought it would be a different story, but I actually had my worst regatta. Obviously you learn a lot more from losing than winning and it shows you how you don’t want to feel after an Olympics. I was down in the gutters for a while and I don’t want to be like that come 2012. So I think I learned what not to do pretty well."

He contrasts Paul Goodison who came home with Gold and ever since has been riding the crest of a wave, winning every Laser event he has sailed in this year, save Skandia Sail For Gold. After some disappointing results earlier in the season including a disappointing 17th at the Worlds, Sail For Gold marked Slingsby’s return to form and which he is following up this week at Sail Sydney, where after nine races he is leading the field.

Following the Games, Slingsby took several months off to lick his wounds and didn’t get back into the Laser until April. During his time out he joined several big boat campaigns, notably the Farr 40 Transfusion of Guido Belgiorno-Nettis, an Italian living in Australia. They campaigned the Farr 40 in Australia, but also to eighth place at this year’s World Championship in Porto Cervo.

"I enjoy the challenge. I think it compliments my Laser sailing," says Slingsby of his big boat sailing. "I think that is where my future will be, so I am trying to get my foot in the door early!"

Ever more though Slingsby is looking ahead to 2012 and reckons he will continue in the Laser.

Based in Gosford, to the north of Sydney, typically Slingsby trains on Sydney Harbour where he sails out of Middle Harbour Sailing Club. Ironically Michael Blackburn, the man who pushed him hardest on the water pre-Qingdao (and who also now still competes against him in the Farr 40s), is now his coach, having retired from Laser sailing.



Within the 11-strong Aussie Laser squad Slingsby at the grand old age of 24, is now the oldest. Among the new blades he reckons that there are a couple showing potential - Ash Brunning and James Burman, who are at present 11th and 13th at Sail Sydney.

"It is a young squad and it doesn’t have a lot of depth, but if these guys train together I think we could be a force in a year or two,” says Slingsby. "We had three boats in Gold fleet at the Worlds and hopefully next year I think we can bump it up to six or seven."

Certainly Australian Olympic sailors are benefitting across the board since the Australian Sailing Team was formally set up in 2006. "That was two years before Bejing," says Slingsby. "So everything was rushed a bit maybe. This time we have learned what we did right and what we did wrong and we’ll have a lot better program going in. I think 2012 will be better for Australians." Into the mix they now have a new Team Direector in Peter Conde.

As to the 2012 Olympic venue, the unusual northeasterly conditions experienced during Sail For Gold were clearly to Slingsby’s liking: “The big shifts. I prefer the shifty and tricky stuff to the straight line speed stuff. That seems to suit my sailing. I think just being an Australian I’ll always love the heavy conditions and I just feel comfortable and I feel I can beat anyone whereas light airs are just a little unnatural for me. But I still hope to work on it and hopefully get a bit better over the next few years and also improve my strong weather even more."

Something which perhaps Slingsby experienced during his last campaign and which Paul Goodison has also fallen to in the past has been overcooking their campaign early on and peaking too soon. Slingsby is more than aware of that. "For two or three years, I won every major event, the Europeans, the Worlds, and when you are on the top everyone wants to catch you and when are on top you think they are not going to catch you, but now that I haven’t been going so well so I am one of those people who wants to catch Goodie. We all have to peak for the Olympics, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with winning early on as well."

Of course competing in the Laser is always a different challenge to the other Olympic classes, being on supplied equipment and with more boats on the course. As Slingsby points out “with so many Lasers, if you make a mistake you get punished by 40 boats not 10 boats. Obviously Goodie has been playing the percentage game all year. He just chips away up the middle and takes the major shifts and hopefully that is what I want to do over the next few years. You have to have good speed obviously. The people who are high risk - generally it doesn’t work. With a one drop regatta in 10 races you are going to be eating a bad result at the end of it."

Slingsby is still contemplating at what stage he will ramp up his Laser campaign and admits it is quite hard to find motivation to train for all the top events he has won before, but which are necessary to get to Weymouth. He will certainly continue in big boats, but we certainly expect that Slingsby will be one of the key people putting pressure on defending Gold medallist and local Weymouth resident Paul Goodison come 2012.