Jessica Nelson

Sports Award

Age:

22

Biography

I am 16 years old from Rutland. I first started sailing after the rest of my family took it up as a leisure activity. After starting to sail with my school I decided to race competitively pushed on by the support I had from my partner. I have been competing for the past 4 years starting out in the RS Feva dinghy as a crew. 2 years ago I moved into the youth class of the 29er. This was a big step up requiring a greater level of fitness as well as technical knowledge sailing to get to the front of the fleet. For a year I sailed as a mixed gender pairing and was successful coming either 2nd or 3rd mixed pairing at every event we attended. We were qualified for the class national squad and after lots of hard work we won silver fleet at the RYA Youth Nationals. Unfortunately, due to injury, my helm was unable to compete in the nationals, as a result I had to find a new helm so I could continue the season. I decided at this point to partner up with a girl as only all female boats were accepted on the Olympic pathway. At our first event together with only one days training we qualified for gold fleet against the top 80 boats in the country. Unfortunately, as an all female boat we can often be disadvantaged in strong winds as we are a lighter pair and the boat design makes it easier for heavier pairings to do better in these conditions. At the first British Youth Sailing Team qualifier we were unsuccessful but did qualify for the Class National Squad once again as well as the Welsh National Squad as my partner is from Cardiff. This only pushed us to train harder and improve. As a result, at the Youth Nationals we came 5th girls and 16th overall in tricky conditions, when combined with our outstanding fitness test results we were accepted into the British Youth Sailing Team. This provides us with the best training we can get. I currently do not receive any other funding for my sailing. The JHMT is helping to provide me the support essential for such an expensive and competitive sport. It is really helping me to focus on being the best I can be.