Olympic hopefuls in need of community’s support

Times Contributor

 

Hailing from the land-locked province of Alberta, two Olympic hopefuls, Hannah Meers (18) and Erin Flanagan (26) are in the midst of preparing to sail the International 470 Dinghy in the woman’s division, at the 2012 Summer Olympics, in London, England.

Through intensive training in Victoria, B.C and Miami, Florida, the Wild Rose girls efforts are focused on qualifying and competing at an Olympic level. 

The skipper of the 470 boat, Hannah Meers of Strathmore, has been sailing since she was ten years old. Meers learned to sail through the Calgary Yacht Club and the Newell Sailing Club. Throughout Meer’s sailing career, she has had experience in sailing single handed dinghies like the Optimist and the Laser Radial, but is new to sailing a double handed, 470 boat. In recent years, Meers has been coaching sailing through the Alberta Sailing Association.

“Before I joined up with Erin, my competitive sailing was really slowing down for sure. I had been coaching for the last couple of years and was not actually sailing competitively; I think my sailing career was headed more towards a coaching stand point rather than (being) a competitive sailor,” said Meers.

Erin Flanagan, the crew member of the boat, began sailing at the age of seven through the Glenmore Sailing Club and has sailed the Optimist and Laser Radial dinghies throughout her younger years. Flanagan began sailing the 470 boat in 2006. Flanagan has been in the pursuit of the 2012 Summer Olympics for the last couple of years with a previous skipper who had decided against continuing the campaign back in August. 

“Erin still wanted to see through the campaign, so she was looking around for a skipper, and she asked my boss, Peter MacDougal, who is the head instructor for Alberta Sailing, and Peter gave her a few suggestions and one of them was me, so we tried sailing together in Victoria for a little bit,” said Meers. 

The pair brought out Australian Coach, Ian “Bunny” Warren, who has had firsthand competition experience in Olympic sailing, and has coached Olympic medalists throughout the past. After seeing the duo on the water, Bunny immediately saw talent and knew that there was potential in the girls to carry out the campaign.

Meers and Flanagan immediately began training together and have most recently been training in Miami, Florida between visits back home, since the end of November. The team started noticing a strong difference in their training intensity as soon as Bunny came to Miami to coach the girls. 

Since beginning on the water together in September, Meers describes her and Flanagan’s progress as in “leaps and bounds.”

“We always worked well in the boat together, but especially the learning curve for me, because I’m so new to this boat and double hand sailing in general, (has been) that I’ve been forced to improve at a ridiculous rate, especially sailing with teams that have already qualified for the Olympics, or have already been to the Olympics and have medals in the Olympics,” said Meers. 

Up next for the Wild Rose team is more training and practise regattas in Spain and France. More importantly, the girls are gearing up for the last set of qualifiers, May 13-19, in Barcelona, Spain. 

 “Basically, there are five spots left in the Olympics, there are 22 boats that compete from 22 different countries, so no country can send more than one boat. 17 of those spots were already filled at the previous qualifiers,” explained Meers. 

The girls need to finish in the top 60% of the Nations and must be the first placed Canadian team at the 2012 470 World Championships in Barcelona, Spain, in order to qualify to compete in the Olympics. There is only one other Canadian team that will be competing against the Wild Rose Girls in the women’s 470 dinghy division. 

While on the water, the girls’ focus may be improving on their abilities and working in a communal fashion, but off of the water, a large challenge that lies ahead is the immense amount of fundraising that needs to be done in order to cover the expensive costs of the campaign. The heavier costs include equipment, travel and coaching. The budget the girls are anticipating up to the qualifiers, ranging from Nov 1- May 20, 2012, will total at approximately $107,662.

After the girls’ successful Wine, Cheese, and Comedian night at Cheadle Hall this past Saturday, Feb 18, the Wild Rose team raised an impressive $14,000, bringing the combined total of funds raised to $44,000.

Meers is incredibly pleased with the evening’s turnout but strongly emphasizes that the team is still in need of help from the community in order to raise enough funds to reach their goal.

The next upcoming fundraising event will be the Wine, Cheese and Silent Auction at the South Calgary Community Association in Calgary, on Feb 25. The night will feature a speech from guest speaker, naturalist Brian Keating. Tickets are $50 and are available for purchase by visiting the team’s website, http://www.wildrosegirls.ca

To follow the girls’ progress or to donate, visit the girls’ website, which links to the Wild Rose Girls Facebook page, Twitter page and blog.