Beadsworth - Sydenham - Parkin

Preparation complete, Britain's Olympic Soling team wait for the first gun

The Soling fleet/match-racing class at the Sydney Olympics is going to be one of the hardest to call with up to six crews capable of winning a medal on their day. Although there are only 16 nations admitted to the class for the Olympic regatta, the fleet/match format and the progressive knock-out structure makes it arguably the toughest gold medal available at Rushcutter's Bay.

The opening six fleet races beginning on September 17th are almost certainly going to be held outside Sydney Harbour Heads where big swells and breaking waves can make life very difficult. If you survive the cut there, the match racing will then take place in what are likely to be light and shifty conditions just off the Sydney Opera House - it's going to be a complete test.

The Soling finals will be held on Olympic sailing's most spectacular stage and there are some class acts bidding to play a part. Among them: Jochen Schumann, the German triple gold medallist and defending Olympic champion in the class; Jesper Bank of Denmark who won gold at Barcelona in 1992; Roy Heiner of Holland who has an Olympic medal in Finns and has been the top Soling skipper over the last year, and Jeff Madrigali of the United States who won bronze in Solings in Savannah and this year won the class fleet racing world championships.

The list goes on - the Frenchman Philippe Presti is also a potent threat, for example. Each of them is capable of taking the spoils in Sydney. But they all also have one other thing in common - they have each been beaten at one time or another by Great Britain's Soling contenders, Andy Beadsworth, Richard Sydenham and Barry Parkin, strong candidates for a medal of any hue.

Beadsworth, who has competed in Solings since 1993, was fourth in Savannah. But he has long since put that disappointment behind him and has put together an impressive campaign over the last two years in preparation for Sydney. In the last year he has been one of the most consistent performers in the class internationally, winning the 1999 European match racing championships, this year's Miami Olympic classes regatta and finishing third and fourth in this year's match and fleet racing worlds respectively.

On the eve of the Games - with, as he put it, the clock ticking down to the start - Beadsworth is relaxed and confident. "We know we've beaten everybody this year and we're fairly happy with our game, fairly happy with our speed and comfortable in Sydney. We feel we've covered all the bases we can cover and now it's just a case of letting the clock tick down," he told madforsailing.

Like Ian Walker, the Great Britain Star class skipper, Beadsworth believes Sydney Harbour is going to produce some very difficult conditions which are going to test sailor's nerves to the limits, and there will be days when the form book is going to be thrown overboard. "Mentally it's going to be very hard," said Beadsworth. "Everybody is going to have big knocks probably - it's going to be dealing with them and not letting them affect you too much. When people luck-in and do well without due cause, that'll be hard to deal with as well. It's going to be about staying calm, staying cool and not freaking out when it's not going to plan as it were."

Beadsworth's initial aim is to get through the opening fleet racing stages in good shape - ideally in the top-three which gives him a bye into the last six in the match racing eliminator. But achieving that is not essential and sometimes in the past crews have prospered by going through the entire match-racing format and then coming to the key stages fully fired-up.

In the past two weeks Beadsworth, Sydenham and Parkin have been adding the final touches to their campaign, putting in many hours below the terrace of the Opera House trying to master a course with land and buildings - including the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge - encroaching on all sides. The British crew have practised against Bank's Danish team, Presti's team from France, Neville Witty, the Australian Soling representative and the experienced Manuel Doreste of Spain. "Where we've got a big edge over the rest of the world, is in medium air," reflected Beadsworth. "We're pretty good as far as weaknesses go - we're pretty rounded and we've tried to work hard at bringing everything up to a similar level. If anything's not quite what I'd like, it's our heavy air speed - but then again we were fourth at a heavy-air worlds this year."

The trio has blended well and morale is good. Beadsworth has no doubt they are in a better position than the equivalent stage four years ago. "We're at a different level of preparation to what we were in Savannah both physically, mentally and in terms of our programme," he said. "We're a lot further advanced and a lot more comfortable with our position - we are not striving to achieve the big gains that we were going into Savannah," he added.

The question is: will Beadsworth convert it this time into a well-deserved medal?