GB sailing team 'strongest ever'

Team GB sailing leader Stephen Park believes no other country at the Olympics can match his team's strength in depth.

Great Britain are the most successful nation in Olympic sailing history, having won more gold medals than any other nation.

British sailors have also topped the sailing medal table at the last three Games and Park is confident the trend will continue on home waters.

"Without a shadow of a doubt, we have our strongest team ever," he said. "Every single team we have entered in all 10 events has people who are proven medal performers, not people that on their best day, given their best results, might just possibly put it all together in one event and win.

"We have people who have actually delivered, been world championship medallists, have been winning at World Cup events throughout this year, with pretty much every key event the equivalent to a World Championship fleet.

"Every single one of them has good reason to believe they can podium and of course we will be supporting every single one of them to try and do exactly that. If we do that, we stick to the plans and the processes, then the results should take care of themselves.

"I think in terms of depth across all 10 classes, we are stronger than any other country by a margin. There are one or two countries that might argue in specific classes they think they may be stronger and maybe they're correct. But across all 10 events, there is no doubt. I don't think there is a country that comes close."

Park has been the Royal Yachting Association's Olympic manager since 2001 and is now presiding over his third Games. The Glaswegian is impressed by the way the team are coming together and believes everything is in place for a successful few weeks.

"The mood in the camp is very good at the moment," Park said. "Everybody is making final preparations and boats are ready. Also they are just taking a little time [to themselves] so they don't have too intensive a training day so they can be 100% ready to go on day one.

"We've had some great training in the period running up to the event and we are ready to race. Everyone is eager for the first race to come up and we're all looking forward to the opening ceremony on Friday night."