Yachting: Blair Tuke says pressure's off

Kerikeri 49er sailor Blair Tuke and his skipper Peter Burling are pretty happy to be flying under the radar at the moment.

The pair's two silver medals at the last two World Championships demonstrate their international ranking and although their 11th place at the recent Olympic warm-up regatta wasn't up to their usual standard, it has allowed them to escape the weight of expectation going into the event.

"While the result did bring us down to earth a little, we're sure there's no need to panic and change our normal lead up preparations and in a way it has helped us fly under the radar," Tuke said.

They went into the Sail For Gold regatta last month in Weymouth as one of the favourites but they were a little under prepared and that was apparent in their results, particularly in the early stages.

"We did pretty badly by our own standards in the first couple of days and then the regatta was cut short by bad weather conditions and that meant we never really had a chance to catch up," he said.

Six of the gold medal fleet races were cancelled meaning they had fewer chances to repair the damage their poor start cost them, but in the end they finished one point short of qualifying for the gold medal race.

"If we'd sailed the full series and sailed well in those (cancelled) races we probably would have still been pushing for a medal."

While not making excuses for their below par performance Tuke said their focus at the regatta was unusually split.

"We didn't have our normal regatta lead in and our priorities were on different things.

"We got all the equipment out that we are going to be using for the Olympics so our focus wasn't completely on the regatta we were sailing in like it normally would be at a big event - it was on the Olympics," he said.

"While the overall result wasn't great we're still pretty happy with where we are at now, we got everything ticked off that we wanted and we'll be heading back in a few weeks to finish the job."

The 22-year-old Tuke and his 21-year-old skipper are confident they can break the 20-year medal drought that yacht sailors at the Olympics have suffered - the only medals brought back from recent games have been by the boardsailors.

They still have a couple of aces up their sleeve when they unveil their new equipment for the Olympics and that will add to their confidence that they can challenge undisputed favourites, Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen, for the gold medal.

The Australian pair has won the last two world championships and Outteridge has two more titles to his name with a previous crew.

"I think we can beat them - it's a one off event and we got really close to them (at the World Championships) in Croatia and if we sail well and they are just a little off their best then we could come away with the gold," Tuke said. "But it's not just us, it's the British, the Spanish, the French, who were going really well at the regatta in Weymouth and a few other crews who could all win gold on their day - so it's going to be a pretty tough event."

The pair will be training hard until leaving for Britain on July 16 but they will get a chance to come up to Kerikeri to stay with Tuke's parents Andy and Karen for a few days before then.

The young sailors know how hard it will be to win gold at the Olympic venue at Weymouth but they relish the opportunity they've earned.

"It's a pretty big challenge for a couple of young guys like us but we're really excited about it, we enjoy the pressure and we tend to go quite well at the big events, so hopefully we can turn it on come late July."