Sebastian Ripard and Benji Borg, making up the young Malta49er team, are back to a solid training schedule which started in autumn with the presence in our country of the Hungarian 49er champions – Balazs Haidekker and Demeter Nobilis.
December turned out to be the most rewarding for Sebastian and Benji, however, because it brought into their path Kolja Volkers, a German coach who between 2000 and 2008 was in charge of the German Olympic team.
In his first visit here, Volkers, well acquainted with 49er sailing at its highest level, focused his sessions on high-intensity training and a lot of boat handling.
An exercise aimed to stress the importance and value of the communication aspect was sailing the 49er blindfolded. This really pushed the boys to ‘feel’ the boat.
Sounds strange but not when having to sail a boat with covered eyes... I believe it is not!
Well it’s no surprise that after a week of such an ‘ordeal’ the Maltese duo were exhausted. However, the effort was rewarding not only for the experience gained but mainly because Volkers became so interested in the campaign that he has committed himself to be the Malta49er coach for 2011.
Both Sebastian and Benji are looking forward that this partnership will hopefully extend up to and for the 2012 Olympic Games.
Apart from a few days off over the festive period it was business as usual for the young professionals who worked to keep up the intensity of both their technique and endurance levels.
This means spending seven sessions (of nearly two hours each) a week on the water and six times in the gym, working on cardio and core strength.
With such an intense schedule, it is important that the lads have to fit a lot of eating around their daily routine where on a good day they burn around 3,000 calories more than average.
Volkers believes the locals are progressing adequately, based on current form and since he first saw them at the European Championships in Poland last year, and, moreover, their development during their week of training in December.
He will be back for another week of specialised training at the end of January following which Ripard and Borg will go through some three more weeks of training on their own before they ship their boat to Spain.
The Malta49er team plan to move over to Palma de Mallorca for the whole of March, racing with foreign teams, training with their coach and getting ready for the first European event of the ISAF Sailing World Cup at the same venue between April 1 and 10.
2011 promises to be an exciting year for Sebastian and Benji.
“Our progress from where we were last year is quite outstanding and hopefully we can keep moving forward at this pace especially since we have now budgeted for a week of coaching with Kolja Volkers every month,” remarked Sebastian.
The London Games are the ultimate objective of the two Maltese sailors who could only cope with the hefty expense of maintaining a professional level of play thanks to a host of sponsors, namely, EC English Language Centres, Cisk Excel Beer, RLR Yachting, Yacht Help Ltd and Big Exhibits as well as other contributors such as Creative Partners, Body Works and Kurt Arrigo.
What is the qualifying procedure for the 2012 Olympics?
There are 20 places, excluding Great Britain, for the 49er class.
The first 15 will qualify from the 2011 World Championships, in December, in Perth, Australia. The remaining five will qualify at the May 2012 World Championships in Croatia.
Presently, Seb and Ben do not have the funds to compete ‘down under’ so they are aiming to reach their goal in the 2012 Worlds.
However, they have still not given up hope completely on making the trip to Perth at the end of this year... if they gather enough funds.