P Tobin started boardsailing as a 7-year-old and his dream is an Olympic podium finish - hopefully in London in 2012. JP Tobin wants to retain his national title in Manly next month and prepare for the worlds in August. Veteran boardsailor JP Tobin has had more than his fair share of disappointment in his sporting career. Despite twice being ranked No 1 in the world, Tobin's Olympic dream remains unfulfilled after twice watching four years of hard work go down the gurgler as he failed to meet the qualifying standard for the Games.

As a follow up to the recent meeting with Yachting NZ I pointed out that given the importance of SPARC funding which is based on competitive results, and with the way the Olympics were moving (introduction of snowboarding, mountain biking and BMX etc.) that windsurfing variants such as freestyle and slalom could become very attractive because of their spectator appeal, and that this alone should be a factor in giving windsurfing more focus in the development area. So not surprisingly kiteboarding has now put itself forward as a possible new olympic sport, and why not? This from IKO recently:

YNZ is seeking expressions of interest from sailors who are interested in competing at this event.The first Youth Olympic Games will be hosted by Singapore from 14-24 August, 2010 and will feature all the sports on the programme for the 2012 Olympic Games, but with a more limited number of disciplines and events.

The Youth Olympic Games will gather approximately 3,200 athletes and 800 officials. The sailing competition will feature 100 young sailors aged between 15-16 years in four sailing events: one person dinghy men; one person dinghy women; windsurfing men; and windsurfing women.