WHEN the world’s top windsurfers gather in Cadiz, Spain, today for the opening ceremony of their championship event, Britain’s Bryony Shaw will be among them.

But the Beijing Olympic bronze medallist will be making a last-minute decision about whether or not to compete at the 2012 RS:X World Championships as she has been unable to train for a month due to a chest infection.

The former Weymouth schoolgirl, who represents Great Britain at this summer’s Games on home waters, has not let the setback get her down.

She joked that if she does compete she will be ‘the most rested athlete’ on the race course.

Shaw said: “I’m just about recovering – it’s been four weeks!

“Still undecided if I will compete in the worlds, but I am thinking positive.

“I will certainly be the most rested athlete if I race.”

The International Sailing Fed-eration has reported that Shaw will be eager to ‘stamp her authority on the fleet’ in order to go into the 2012 Olympic regatta with the psychological advantage on her side after a disappointing seventh place finish at the Perth World Championships in December.

Shaw added: “If I decide to race I will be very chilled about the psyching-out side of things, and just race my best in the situation.”

The booked-out event is anticipating fleets of 120 men and 80 women, with racing set to start tomorrow.

Competitors from 47 countries and five continents are registered to race in the Men’s RS:X fleet, with 19 of them chasing nine national qualification places for the 2012 Olympic Competition.

In the Women’s RS:X fleet, there are racers from 36 countries, 16 chasing only seven remaining places.

More than 50 countries have taken part in the Olympic qualification process and 49 will assemble for the Opening Ceremony in Puerto Sherry, Cadiz, today.

If Shaw does compete, she will be up against Israel’s Lee Korzits, Poland’s Zofia Klepacka and Spain’s Marina Alabau who claimed podium places at the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Champ-ionships in Fremantle, Australia.

In the Men’s RS:X fleet, competition will be just as intense with Weymouth Olympian Nick Demp-sey up against Dutch World Champion Dorian van Rijsselberge who narrowly beat him at the 2012 test event last summer.

Other top contenders include Poland’s Piotr Myszka, Israel’s Nimrod Mashich and New Zealand’s JP Tobin.

Dempsey’s training partner Elliot Carney, who is now based in the borough, is also expected to make a name for himself at the event after a top 10 finish at the World Championships in Perth.

Profile

BRYONY Shaw is Britain’s most successful women’s windsurfer and the only one to have won an Olympic windsurfing medal.

Born in Oxfordshire, her family moved to Weymouth in 2001 and Shaw attended Budmouth College.

Shaw deferred her architecture studies at Cardiff University to concentrate full-time on Olympic campaigning.

Her decision paid dividends when she won the Beijing Olympic Test Event in 2007, before the Olympic bronze the following year.

In August 2011 Shaw won bronze at the Olympic Test Event in Weymouth and Portland.

She first learned to windsurf aged nine on holiday in Southern France before honing her skills on family holidays and on her home waters of Weymouth and Portland.