SKANDIA Team GBR is the British Sailing Team in the Olympic and Paralympic classes.

The team consists of the Performance Squad and Development and Transitional squads, which jointly total around 70 sailors. The sailors train and compete across 10 Olympic Classes: Finn, Laser Radial, Laser, 470 men and women, 49er, Star, NeilPryde RS:X men and women windsurfers and, new for London 2012, Women’s Olympic Classes Match Racing.

There are three Paralympic Classes: the Sonar, 2.4mR and SKUD18.

Great Britain is the world’s top Olympic classes sailing nation with the British Olympic team sailors topping the medal table at the past three Games in 2000, 2004 and 2008.

In a new Dorset Echo column, Skandia Team GBR members will be bringing an insight into the campaign for glory in 2012.

Here’s Paul Goodison, Weymouth’s Olympic gold medallist Laser sailor who claimed bronze at last week’s Weymouth and Portland International Regatta.

AFTER a tough week of racing in the bay, it all came down to the medal race.

With all three medals still up for grabs it was everything to gain, nothing to lose. I had a few points to make up but was determined to give it my best shot.

After an early lead up the first beat a few boats came round the top mark in front.

After a solid run I took the lead up the second beat and went on to win the race.

The drama was unfolding behind as Tom (AUS) made a good come back to cross the line just in front of Rutger (NED). Unfortunately this left me with Bronze.

I’m a little disappointed but I guess I couldn’t have done much more. With plenty of things to work on over the next 12 months it is time for a brief break before knuckling down to get where I need to be in 2012... I will be heading east for the premiere West Mersea Race week for a few days and then back to Weymouth for Thursday Evening at the RS games to help raise money for Cancer Research… THE bronze medal at the Olympic test event mirrored Paul’s result at the Skandia Sail for Gold regatta in June, after which he blogged: WOW, after quite a week I finished with a medal, not the colour I wanted but not far off after a frustrating medal race that didn’t quite go my way. Sail for Gold was incredibly important with the pre-Olympic spot on the line.

It was a physically challenging week that not only need physical strength but mental perseverance… I may have started the week a little conservative rather than attacking straight from the start but that was always the plan to have a solid foundation to build on.

I thought I was sailing well but things weren’t quite coming off. In the finals things came together when the pressure really came on and I needed to pull myself out of trouble, I managed to finish with a 3, 3, 1 guaranteeing a medal going in to the medal race.

With the possibility of gold still on, I attacked hard and thought I had given Tom a penalty at the start.

In the process of struggling to get my protest flag out and hailing the jury I was a fraction late at the start. After tacking out the wind filled from the left leaving me stranded on the right a long way behind. I fought back but it wasn’t good enough, leaving me with Bronze. The most important thing was I got the pre-Olympic spot, which is a vital part of defending my title in 2012.