This Is Guernsey

By Aaron Scoones

SOPHIE PLATTS will represent Great Britain at the 2008 Laser Radials Youth World Championship in New Zealand. Starting on Easter Monday in the ‘City of Sails’, Auckland, the 17-year-old Ladies’ College student, who is a member of the British youth squad, is one of the four girls to be chosen by GB.

‘The ”City of Sails” is one of the most amazing places to sail in the world and I will be competing against the best sailors who are the sport’s future Olympians,’ she said.

‘I am so excited. I have never visited New Zealand and being my last youth worlds, it is a fantastic opportunity.

‘It will be nice to be somewhere a bit warmer after a long winter in harsh conditions where your motivation to go out sailing in Weymouth in three degrees is sometimes hard to find.’

It is the second time that Platts has gone to the ‘worlds’.

She was the first Channel Islander to be picked for Great Britain for the event when it was held in Scheveningen, the Netherlands, in August.

Platts finished a commendable 21st out of 70 competitors and the second British sailor going into the final day of competition.

But she struggled in the heavy seas off the Dutch coast that day and dropped 10 places.

She was also a member of the Guernsey side that won silver in the sailing team event at the Rhodes Island Games earlier in the summer.

The A-level student has now been working hard to get ready for the NZ challenge and there is an extra incentive as the competition doubles as a selection event for the summer’s ISAF youth worlds in Denmark.

One girl from Great Britain will be selected based on the results in New Zealand.

‘I’ll be in training every weekend in February, including British Youth Squad weekends, three days of girls training with the coach for the female Olympic squad and pre-worlds training with the rest of the team,’ she said.

‘I have been training hard in the gym at least five times a week to reach the level of fitness required for a full week of racing in possibly fairly breezy conditions. But it’s hard to balance training and trying to gain the weight to reach the ideal weight for the class.’

Platts starts her journey to New Zealand on 19 March in order to have a few days to acclimatise before the week-long competition gets underway on 24 March.

‘It’s going to be a task to acclimatise and because of school I’m not going out to New Zealand as early as I ideally would have done,’ she said.

‘Being physically and mentally prepared is going to be a lot more challenging after a 26-hour flight and being jetlagged.’

It will also mean that she will miss some school as she looks towards her A-levels in the summer. Platts is hoping to study medicine at university.

‘I’m having to miss two weeks of school and it is difficult trying to juggle A-levels and training for sailing,’ she said.

‘It can be quite stressful trying to keep on top of work, university applications, fitness and training. But given an opportunity like this, it is much easier to be focused and manage your time because the goal is so important.’