KEY POINTS:
Yachting New Zealand Olympic director Rod Davis is warning not to read too much into the results of this week's RS:X World Championships looking ahead to the Olympic Games.
With Kiwis Tom Ashley and Barbara Kendall setting the pace in their respective fields some are already chalking up medals in Beijing.
Given both the men's and the women's fleet are littered with outstanding talent it is hard not to get excited about the pair's prospects. But Davis said while the signs are promising, the outcome of the championships won't mean anything come the Olympic Games.
"In sport you can never make predictions so we'll just take it one step at a time," the former Olympic sailor said.
"What happens at this world's and what happens at the Olympic Games aren't related. It's just a one-off result, you can't read too much into it."
"Everyone will try to say 'oh Barbara won the worlds, she's going to win a gold medal' or if Barbara ends up 10th they'll say she's not going to win a medal."
"They're not related at all. The Olympics are completely different - you expect the unexpected."
Davis said he was more concerned with the development of the sailors than the results of the regatta.
Yachting New Zealand made the decision to make their Olympic selections early to allow the sailors to concentrate solely on the Beijing Games. In that respect Kendall and Ashley's training has been tailored to the lighter, more physical conditions expected in Qingdao. Davis said both had made good gains in that area and he was particularly impressed with the improvement Kendall had shown.
"Barbara's done a good job over the last four months of cleaning up her light-air speed and it's only through a tremendous amount of effort in the gym."
The wind conditions in Takapuna this week have been lighter than what is typical, so the sailors have been able to get in some good practice competing in little wind. The breeze is expected to pick up later in the week but Davis is hoping that won't be the case.
"My greedy self says I wanna see it stay light because I just want to keep working on what we believe the Qingdao conditions are going to be."
