Setting sail for London

PETER O’LEARY and David Burrows have targeted Olympic qualification as their primary goal at the ISAF Sailing World Championships in Western Australia.

Earlier this week Annalise Murphy secured a spot at London 2012 and remains in the medal hunt in the Laser Radial class which finishes tomorrow.

Then on Monday, O’Leary and Burrows begin their challenge on the back of fourth place finishes at the Pre-Olympic test regatta off Weymouth and the Star Europeans on Dublin Bay.

O’Leary is relishing the challenge of facing an elite field in the Star Class.

“It’s been drummed into me since I was very little that everyone is just human like me and they are there to be beaten, so it’s never bothered me. I go out and do my best.”

And he is emphatic they are out to win an Olympic medal in Weymouth next summer: “We would not be here otherwise, the aim has been to do this, do it right from day one and have no regrets at the end.

“We are here to qualify the country, that is the objective and after that we will see how things go by. With 11 nations qualifying here then we need to be consistent and not take too many risks. Our progress has been steady this year but I feel we are in a nice position.

“We have still plenty to improve on, but I feel we are knocking on the door now. You have to trust in what you know and stay focused.

“Here we feel we are pretty well prepared, we have been here and experienced the 20kts ‘doctor’ and we have had three days training in the easterly which is a but more tricky.”

O’Leary has youth on his side in the class, now complemented by Burrows: “This will be Dave’s fourth Olympics, his second in the Star in 1996 with Mark Mansfield and he did two in the Finn and even here he would have been crucifying people in the breeze in the Finns. You can see him looking over at the Finns racing here in the breeze with that look in his eyes!”