Paul Goodison

WOW!!!!
What an amazing feeling it was to stand on the podium yesterday as the national anthem played with a gold medal around my neck!!!!!
It has been a long week and i feel emotionally and physically drained, and may be a touch hung over this morning.
I woke up this morning and headed down to the shops on route to watch the windsurfers. I was after a pair of gold trainers, I had seen them while training in June but didnt want to put the kiss of death on to my racing. I was gutted they didn't have my size!! It was pretty funny as i was reconised by a few of the locals as i tried to leave. Everybody wanted me to sign something and have their pictures taken with me which was pretty cool.
I headed down to sailing centre and watched Bryony and Nick head out for battle. There was a great atmosphere on the wall as the sailors, support staff and family members gathered in an array of union jacks. There was plenty of screaming and shouting as Britney pumped here way to a Bronze medal, fantastic work.
I was absolutely gutted for Nick as he just missed out on the medals in what seemed to be a really short medal race. I have a pretty good idea how it feels after Athens and I really feel for him.
Im going to try and catch a bit of sleep this afternoon before helping Bryony celebrate this evening, then its back to the wall tomorrow again to cheer for the Tornado and Star boys, COME ON!!!!!!!

Wow

After a lot of waiting on and off the water for racing all week we where out on time today. The wind blew and blew with gusts over 25 knots, large seas and pouring rain. We only managed to complete one race in the reduced visibility. It was pretty scary sailing as the marks where hard to see in the pouring rain. After my bailer broke at the start I struggled to get the water out of my boat as the waves poured over the bow. I battled through well to take 7th over the line. I now head the leader board again as we sail the final day of fleet racing tomorrow before the medal race on Tuesday. I am in a great position and just need to hold it together for 2 more days,
COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last night was the official opening ceremony for the sailing regatta at the Olympic Marina. Having chose not to attend the opening ceremony in Beijing it was a great opportunity to get into the Olympic spirit. The main high light for me was the young gymnast who where hurled into the air and caught creating a tower, pretty impressive stuff.
The Olympic torch was incredibly carried by a past Chinese windsurfing Gold medalist through the air on a model windsurfer. The windsurfing model was illuminated by lights and suspended by wires. The torch flew through the air past all of the competing national flags before lighting the Flame at the end of the corridor. This was pretty cool and made the hair on he back of neck stand up, its a great feeling to be here and i cant wait to get racing.
The games are actually underway making training a bit harder as some of the race courses are now being used. The last few days i have just been sailing on course C looking at the tide and doing a few races run by the race committee. Its nice to get used to the starting vessels and marks that will be used for racing.
Im just off sailing now for my last sail before we kick off on Tuesday, I will try and get all my final preparations done before the end of the day so I can put my feet up tomorrow.
Ive not got my tv schedule planned yet, Im sure there wont be a shortage of good sport and if i get really bored i could always watch the sailing!!!!!!!!!!!

I have just returned back to Qingdao from Shanghi after a three day holding camp. It was nice to get away from the boats for a few days and spend some time relaxing and taking some down time.

The whole team made the trip to Shanghi where we stayed in a really nice hotel just out of town, we had several team meetings but a lot of time to ourselves. The weather was still really hot but much less humid. It was pretty nice being able to jump into the pool to cool off between games of beach volleyball.

On the first morning we got up pretty early for a 7am tee off at the local golf club, it was quite nice for the first few holes before it got really hot and may game went quickly down hill!!!!
It came to the point where it was a rush to get back into the golf cart to create some breeze and cool off as we drove down the fairway.
All in all it was a welcome break for the sailing but its good to get back to Qingdao and get sailing.

With a week to go I cant wait to get started!!!!

It has been a busy few days in Qingdao. I have picked up my new boat and been busy practicing and checking that everything is ok. The new boat seems to be good as i tried the new sail today for the first time. It feels great to look up and see the big union jack flag printed on the sail.