Luke and Stuart Make GB 2012 Olympic Sailing Team
It was announced on Monday that Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell will be representing Great Britain as part of the Olympic Sailing Team, and competing in the men’s 470 class.
Patience and Bithell recently won a silver medal at the World Championships at Perth, which gives us great hope that they may win big at this year’s London 2012 Olympic Games.
“It is absolutely fantastic to see Luke and Stuart be selected for London. It is brilliant for Scottish sailing and especially all our talented young sailors who will be looking to follow in their footsteps. They have been in consistent world beating form for the last couple years and I know they will be ready to bring home some more precious metal later this year,” The RYA Scotland’s High Performance Manager, Nick Scott.
Luke joined forces with Stuart prior to the 2009 World Championships, which took place in Denmark where they also won the silver medal. Together they have also achieved bronze at the 470 Europeans in 2010 and 2011.
When questioned about how he felt when it was announced, Luke Patience stated;
"Even though we weren’t sailing together at the time, Stuart and I by complete coincidence were in the same room when London was announced as the hosts of the 2012 Olympic Games. I feel so privileged and am so excited to have been selected. I can’t wait to be a part of a home Games in one of the greatest cities on earth. We’re absolutely not just going for the t-shirt though. It’s been hard work getting to this point but we’re by no means letting our hair down now. In our campaign we are conscious to celebrate all the small successes along the way, so we’re definitely enjoying this moment, but we have just one goal and that’s to win a gold medal this summer in London so selection is by no means the end of the job."
The waters of Portland Harbour and Weymouth Bay will be host to the 2012 Olympic Sailing events. There are 10 events in total, taking place between Sunday the 29th of July and Saturday the 11th of August.