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Ryan meets with The Carrick Times newspaper after his recent win of the Irish Laser National Championship in Lough Derg.
A Carrick sailor is to spend the autumn and winter thousands of miles from home as he works to secure a place in the Olympics.
Ryan Seaton jets off to Sydney next month to join the Irish national team’s training camp over the next three months ahead of January’s 49er class World Championships.
After a short trip home for Christmas, it is off to the Bahamas for the prestigious competition, where a top 40 finish is a must if the local competitor and partner Matt McGovern, who hails from Bangor, are to make it to London in 2012.
“The target is to finish in the top 40, that is why we are going to Australia, to up our game. Matt and I only teamed up in April, but we finished 46th in the Worlds, our first event together, so we can do it,” he told the TIMES.
“At the minute we are still bonding, building a good relationship together, but if we get some good training in this winter we can hopefully get up in the rankings.
“We are looking to get a top eight finish in London, then medal in 2016.”
Seaton passed the time ahead of the training camp by winning the National Championship in his previous discipline, laser dinghy, at Lough Derg last month.
The sailor added: “I hadn’t been in training for six months, but I ended up winning. Laser and 49er are both Olympic classes and it would be nice to give them both a go, but you are not allowed to do two.”
A preview of what lies ahead is being offered this week as Weymouth, the venue for the 2012 sailing events, hosts a regatta.
Seaton paid tribute to the support he receives from Irish team manager James O’Callaghan and the Sports Institute of Northern Ireland, based at the University of Ulster’s Jordanstown campus, which helps him with strength and fitness training.
And the Olympic hopeful will be seeing a lot more of Jordanstown in the spring - following his winter of globetrotting, February will see him knuckle down to a semester’s hard work towards a degree in Sports Studies from the UU.
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