British Olympic windsurfing took another historic step with Nick Dempsey and Natasha
Sturges posting GBR’s best ever results on the Olympic Mistral Board at the
grade 1 Kiel Regatta.

20 year old Nick Dempsey who was Britains youngest sailing team member (19)at
the 2000 Sydney Olympics, took overall honours at the Kiel Olympic classes Regatta
in Germany with a gap of 23 points. This follows on from a run of excellent
results that has seen him in the top few at all the European majors this season.
Nick commented "This result is my best ever and I am really happy with
the way I sailed. This is the best preparation I could have had for the Europeans
and Worlds in August".

Natasha’s hard fought for 2nd place in Germany follows on from her recent 3rd
place at the Dutch Eurolymp event which is especially pleasing as these results
come after 18 months away from the circuit and included beating the current
Olympic and World champion Italian Alessandra Sensini.

Team Coach, Barrie Edgington put the performances in perspective "The
Kiel regatta is a stern test of any sailor with gusty and variable conditions
so the consistent performances of the Brits was all the more impressive. After
nearly a decade struggling to achieve international results it’s great to be
considered a leading nation again and with Dom Tidey posting a personal best
8th place the team approach is really paying off".

"It is difficult to articulate just what an important step forward this
year’s results represent. Suffice to say this time last Olympic cycle we were
staring at results in the high 20’s and the same time the cycle before we were
lucky even to make the gold fleet in the mens. And now we’re winning the event!
It is hard for somone outside of the ‘game’ to understand the level of
profesionalism, dedication and skill that is required to succeed at this level.
This truly is a fantastic result…"

The Lottery funded WCP Windsurfing team will now put the final preparations
to there European and World’s build up with training camps in Weymouth and then
Marsailles, sight of the European Championships, before moving on to the worlds
Championships in Athens at the end of August.

As the last opportunity to race with the best before these two championships
in August, Kiel certainly showed the signs are very good Team GBR.