Mark focuses on Finn (From Dorset Echo)

Mark Andrews focuses on Finn

6:00pm Thursday 7th March 2013 in Sport By Laura Kitching

MARK Andrews has pulled out of solo offshore racing to focus on his Finn Olympic dinghy class campaign.

The 27-year-old, who lists Weymouth as his hometown, was selected to join the Artemis Offshore Academy squad last October following intense trials.

He made the ‘difficult decision’ not to continue with the single-handed offshore programme ahead of this week’s first big solo race of the season.

Scotsman Andrews, who finished seventh at the 2012 Finn World Championships and worked as Ben Ainslie’s training partner in the London 2012 Games build-up, will instead focus on the Academy’s double-handed Figaro programme alongside campaigning for Team GB selection for the Rio 2016 Games in the Finn.

He said: “I have made the difficult decision not to pursue this season’s single-handed offshore programme and will instead focus on double-handed and fully crewed offshore racing that can run alongside my Finn programme.

“I’ve put in a lot of work in the last few months, however, after the first solo 24-hour training race I suspected that solo racing may not be for me and I wanted to make my decision early so that another sailor could campaign Artemis 23 for the season.”

On Tuesday, he tweeted: “Great to be back in the Finn but if today was anything to go by there is a whole lot more pain heading my way.”

Racing in the ICOM Cup Meditéranée began at La Grande Motte, France on Wednesday.

Henry Bomby, of Dartmouth, has taken over the reigns of Andrews’ boat Artemis 23. Other Academy members competing include Ed Hill and Jack Bouttell.

Visit artemisoffshoreacademy.com or follow Mark Andrews on Twitter @gbr88sailing