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Andrew Kilburn's 2009 season to date
I asked Andrew to tell us what he has been up to this summer, we'd like to hear from others as to thier successes on the circuit - look forward to a flood of e mails!
My summer’s year of racing started when I was chosen to compete at Braassemermeer in Holland in a GBR team of 40 I came 62nd in silver fleet. It was a great experience been abroad as part of a team representing my country. I also went to the British selectors but had a bad event and came 68th. Next was the Inlands where it was very windy with gusts of 30 and I finished 80th out of 250. So if I wanted to get into Intermediate Squad I would have to do well at the last two national rankers before the Nationals.
Over the summer I did lots of open meeting all over the country getting two 2nds and 1 first, as well as gaining good positions at both Lymington and Warsach. I also continued to attend Midlands Optimist Training. To help me prepare for the Nationals I did the Scottish Open at Largs the weekend before, where it was very windy on the Saturday and several boats didn’t complete . I completed the event and finished 13th. At the Nationals the weather was very mixed, we had one day when a lack of wind meant no racing. It was my first year in senior fleet and my best result was 21st and all my worst results were on the last day which ended with my mast step breaking and Becky having to tow me in. Over all I finished 49th but I was 35th GBR boat that makes my ranking two places off Intermediate Squad so I need a good end of seasons in October!
Welsh Nationals was another great event with 97 boats. I finished 24th with my best result been 4th.
Andrew Kilburn
And this autumn Andrew updates us on his progress - well done Andrew:
In the Autumn I had two goals:
1. to win the North Zone Championship for the second year, which I did at the end of September .
2. to gain a place in the Optimist Intermediate Squad to do this I needed to improve my ranking from 72 to a place in the top 60. The first day of the End of Seasons did not go quite as well as I had hoped with 250 boats I got a 46, 48 and 23 in my flight but I was determined to improve on this and keep an Intermediate place with in my sights.
Sunday saw my results improving with a 26, 33 and 24 which meant I was 55th GBR overall at the event which gave me an overall ranking of 51 which means I have been offered an Intermediate place.
This means I will be in a squad of 30 with a coach to every 6 children. There are 6 weekends of training, two of which are residential. It also means I will be invited to the selectors again in 2010.