Sailing - Sailors Julie, Govinden on European training camps |19 February 2016

Local sailors Allan Julie and newly crowned Sportsman of the Year Rodney Govinden are training with SailCoach in preparation for major international competitions.

Six-time former Sportsman of the Year Julie will be attempting to qualify for the Olympic Games for a fifth time, but this time in the heavyweight one-person dinghy Finn class.

The main objective of Julie’s present European escapade is to take part in the Princess Sofia Trophy Regatta, a European Olympic qualification competition, in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, from March 25 to April 2.

To prepare for this event, Julie who was in Marseille, France for a 10-day Finn training camp, flies to Malta today to enter a fitness camp phase before going to Barcelona, Spain on February 25 to meet up with team Zbogar.

Julie will train with team Zbogar for the Finn European Championship which is scheduled to start on March 4 and after that he will compete in the Princess Sofia Trophy Regatta which serves as Olympic qualifier.

He is expected to fly home on April 4 and in the event of him qualifying for the Olympics, a new training programme will be drawn up.

According to reports, the Finn is the most physical and tactical single-hander sailboat in the world.

As for Sportsman of the Year Govinden, he is on BaseCamp training phase in Malta and will travel to Gran Canaria, Spain to take part in the Standard Laser European championship starting February 26.

The second competition he will take part in is the Princess Sofia Regatta on March 23.

During part two of his training, he will compete in the Garda Olympic regatta in Italy and train in Malta.

On June 30, Govinden will fly to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to take part in Pre-Olympic BaseCamp training ahead of competing in the Olympic Games for the first time.

Govinden qualified for the Olympics after finishing second out of 10 sailors to take the silver medal in the Laser standard class of the African Championship of Sailing in Algiers, Algeria.

The Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil will take place from August 5-21, 2016.

The two sailors’ training programmes are being sponsored by the Seychelles Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association, the National Sports Council and the Seychelles Yachting Association.

G. G.