IT MAY be one year to go until the Olympic and Paralympic Sailing events but Dorset athletes have their focus solely on next week’s test event.

The Weymouth and Portland International Regatta is among 42 test events being held by the London 2012 Organising Committee across 26 venues.

The regatta, which opens for business this Sunday with racing set to start on Tuesday mirrors next year’s Olympic sailing event with each nation able to send just one entry .

It involves more than 400 sailors from 66 nations around the world and the venue of the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy and the adjacent Portland Marina will be used to test the systems, equipment, workforce and procedures.

Lock down will be tested by organisers and public involvement will be limited with no ticket sales and no plans for live televised coverage of the action, although more than 200 accredited members of the press – including the Dorset Echo – will be reporting daily news of the event.

The event is a key qualification event for many of the athletes.

Dorset’s Lucy Macgregor, of the Match Race Girls, said: “Time is definitely running by quite quickly. In some ways its scary because there’s still a lot to do but it’s also very exciting.

“The pre-Olympics is obviously massive for us. It’s a great time to learn a lot more about how the Games is going to be next year.”

She added: “There are no guarantees for next year yet and we want to secure a slot on Team GB as soon as possible.”

Skandia Team GBR’s 470 women’s team of Saskia Clark and Hannah Mills, both of Weymouth, are delighted their new partnership in February has paid off with world championship medals and a pre-Olympic team slot.

Saskia, of Wyke Regis, said: “Hannah and I need to get our heads down and focus on the two weeks coming up then we can start looking a bit further forward.”

Weymouth Olympic windsurfer Nick Dempsey is hoping to recreate the gold-medal winning performance at last month’s Sail for Gold regatta.

He said: “It’s going quite well at the moment, although I was ill for three weeks after Sail for Gold so it’s knocked me back quite a lot.

“I quite enjoy the last year of an Olympic campaign.”