North Wales sailor Dan Whiteley has just been named the RYA Cymru Wales Youth Champion, while embarking on the pathway he hopes will lead to Olympic success.
The Bangor teenager has joined the RYA Podium Potential Pathway squad in the Laser boat, the class in which Ben Ainslie won his first Olympic gold medal, based in Weymouth, preparing for his first senior international event in Spain at the end of this month.
“It’s my last year as a junior and I am stepping up to senior level, so it is nice to get the recognition as the RYA Cymru Wales Youth Champion before I am too old,” said Whiteley, a former bronze medallist at the ISAF youth sailing world championships.
“Having been one of the best in the world at youth level I am getting used to being a nobody at senior level, no-one has any expectations of me at the moment and it will be good to go in with no pressure.
“I have moved up to the men’s class of Laser Standard and also moved to Weymouth to pursue Olympic hopes and go sailing full-time.
“I have been here six months now training pretty hard. The boat is technically similar to the Laser Radial at youth level, but the sails are bigger and so there is a lot more power, I need to be heavier so the physical fitness is a big factor.
“GB have a good track record in the Laser, Ben Ainslie and Paul Goodison have won Olympic gold, Nick Thompson has won the last couple of world championships and hopefully I can do the same sort of thing.”
Whiteley is taking a year off after finishing A Levels before planning to go to university to do mechanical engineering, choosing somewhere in the South of England to continue with his sailing in parallel.
“It will be hard work doing both, there will be sacrifices, but it is achievable and most of the Olympic sailors have been to university,” he said.
“This year I am a full-time sailor and it is going well, there have definitely been a few challenges moving up but I have my first international competition coming up so I will see if it is paying off.
“It is very much a case of showing up and seeing where I am, focussing on the process and not the outcome because it is such a big step up.
“I will be competing with people who have sailed the boat for years while I have sailed in it for six months, but I will still be trying to come away with a good result.
“Having been to the ISAF youth worlds will help me because that was a high pressure event, the experience from that will stand me in good stead. It is an exciting few months with a lot of new events coming up.”
Whiteley has been tipped for the top so it should not be long before the RYA Cymru Wales Youth Champion award is added to with awards at the senior level.