A DORSET Olympian’s dreams of competing in a world windsurfing event are hanging by a thread after thieves stole all her kit.

The callous thieves swiped thousands of pounds of Olympic medallist Bryony Shaw’s windsurfing kit from outside her parent’s house in Weymouth.

Bryony became the first British woman to win a medal in Olympic windsurfing when she won bronze in Beijing in 2008.

She has just finished fifth at the ISAF Sailing World Championships in the women’s RSX class.

The 31-year-old regularly trains at Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy and her parents live on Portland Road.

Together with her parents, Hazel and Brian, she had loaded all her kit onto the roof of her parent’s car on Saturday, ready for them to take it to the RYA store.

From there would be put into a container, to be shipped to Abu Dhabi for the event in November.

She then left for a holiday in the US.

But when Bryony’s mum Hazel looked out of the window on Sunday morning the kit had gone from the car on the driveway- thieves had slashed the ties and straps holding it to the car.

She said she felt sick.

She said: “You can’t imagine how sick I feel. I was asleep when it happened. I’m really upset.”

Hazel said that although the kit was worth £5,000 it was useless to anyone apart from an Olympic windsurfer. All the kit has serial numbers on it and has Bryony’s distinct GBR 94 number on it.

She said: “It’s all highly identifiable.

“Anyone in the windsurfing world will know GBR 94 is Bryony Shaw. They will know whose kit it is and where it’s come from.

“It’s somebody trying to make a quick bit of money but what they have done is take away someone’s sporting hopes.”

Although Bryony has one board and a boom in the RYA store already, the board is damaged and will need fixing and she has no sails or masts.

Hazel said her daughters hopes of competing at the ISAF world cup finals are now hanging by a thread.

She said: “It’s going to be a mission to put good kit together.”

Bryony took to Facebook to appeal for people to keep an eye out for her kit.

She wrote: “Hey everyone. Please keep an eye out for any RSX gear around Weymouth. A board in black board bag and large black quiver bag with two sets of gear inside. Anyone please help, they can't hide. Thanks.”

 

The equipment stolen

A SPOKESMAN for Dorset Police said: “The incident is believed to have occurred between 10.30pm on Saturday September 28 and 5.51am on Sunday September 29.

“Anyone who has any information should call 101 quoting incident number 28-103.”

Here is a list of Bryony’s full kit that was stolen: RSX windsurf board (white with yellow and grey), Two black masts engraved with a serial number, two windsurf sails which have GBR 94 on them, a dark grey boom with harness lines on it and an up-haul, a Team GBR buoyancy aid (blue with GBR on it), a spare mast track, a dagger board , a fin, a red luff tube with red edging around the backside of the sail with GBR 94 and a Union jack flag on it.