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D4 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, May 23, 2001 Oakville's Claudia Strobele hangs out the side of her sailboat to counteract the force of the sail. The correct term for the manoeuvre is called hiking and requires upper body strength and endurance. Strobele willsail against world' s best By Norm Nelson BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR Claudia Strobele, who earned one of two berths to represent Canada at the world sailing cham pionships in Portugal this summer and who hopes to represent Canada in the 2004 Olympics, didn't always have sailing in her blood. Luckily, though, as a teenager in Oakville, it was in her friend's blood. Her friend's family were avid sailors and members of the Oakville Yacht Squadron. Her friend asked her to join and so she joined "with a couple of school friends." "It was just sailing school. It was, like summer camp, and we had a lot of fun, we played lots of games. It's a great program. I recommend it for any body. "The beginning was sailing around, learning how to sail, learning how to tack and the basic manoeuvres and some boating safety, water safety. "As we progressed through the lev els, their last two levels are racing lev els." Strobele, so to speak, was off to races. Soon she was scooped up by the Royal Hamilton Yacht Club, which remains her home club, and although her junior career was brief, because of her late start, it was productive. She started off on the right foot, win ning an U-16 eastern Canadian champi onship and then went on to the junior nationals. "I think my best result was third, maybe fourth." And now, this summer, less than a decade after first getting her feet wet, the 23-year-old athlete will line up alongside the best sailors in the world in Portugal. "I'd like to be in the top 30. If I'm in the top 30 I'll be happy with that result for sure," she said. Following the world championship, which takes place the first week of July, Strobele and her fellow Canadian com patriots will prepare for the other major event of their sailing season -- the Canadian championships which will take place August 23-26. One of two Canadians in world championship The level of excitement for these Canadian championships is higher than usual for the Canadian team because it will also serve as a qualifier for next year's world championships -- which are being held right here in Canada. And it's particularly exciting for Strobele and other local sailors because of the venue -- the Royal Hamilton Yacht Club. The push has already started to pro mote these world class events in Hamilton. Strobele said it will "bring a lot of good sailors to the country and it will really bring the level of the class up for all sailors in the country which will be a great chance for Canada." It will also be a great chance for local sports fans to catch some world class sailing. "There is a gorgeous park right beside the yacht club you can watch them. There's also a bridge that passes over, I think it's at Cootes Paradise. From up there you can see down into the bay and it's very nice too." Nothing is ever certain in the wacky world of sports, but Strobele obviously has a good shot at qualifying for next year's worlds. First of all, there are eight spots up for grabs since Canada is the host coun try. (By comparison, Strobele had to lock up one of only two spots to this year's worlds.) Strobele also has a bonus chance -- if she can lock up a top-16 finish at this year's worlds. "That's sort of a dream goal right now -- at this stage, any way." "That would be great, but if you don't do that, if nobody does that, than those spots are remaining at the nation als." Qualifying for this summer's worlds in Portugal, which she did at last year's nationals, has been the highlight of her sailing career, thus far, she agrees: "CORK is the Canadian Olympic Regatta Kingston, and it's the biggest freshwater regatta in the world. And I placed second there which qualified me for the national team. That was my biggest achievement, so far." To be a top notch athlete in any sport requires a tremendous commitment. In most sports, it also requires a financial commitment. The fact that most of our Olympic athletes are strug gling, sometimes get lost in the shadow of the very few select sports that gamer most of the media and fan attention, and which make their stars very wealthy. In Toronto, we're talking the likes of Vince Carter, Mats Sundin or Carlos Delgado. "It's never funded completely and And until the end of the summer she'll be sailing five days a week, about two hours each day. Over the winter, she spent, roughly, the same amount of time in the gym but that will be reduced over the summer. "I just saw my trainer in Toronto and w e're working out a program right now." Sailing can be a very demanding sport, she said. "It's a lot of core strength. A lot of sailors have lower back injuries. So core strength, upper body and really everything. It's an endurance sport -- people don't really realize that. The term is hiking. You're always counter acting the force of the sail because the wind is trying to blow your boat over, essentially. "So in order to counteract, you have to hang out of the side and that really works your quads and your abs because you're out like a flat board. And you have to do that and sustain that for about half an hour so it becomes an endurance sport for that reason." With all her dedication to sport, Strobele has managed to finish up four years at Q ueen's in engineering physics. This summer, amidst all her training and racing, she will continue working part time with one of her professors "doing work in ultra sound." She then hopes to attend graduate school at the University of Toronto to do, medical physics "if not this fall then next fall." An O akville Trafalgar grad, Strobele previously attended E.J. James and was in French immersion at Linbrook. The highlight of her just completed university sailing career at Queen's "was definitely third place at the Single-handed U.S. Nationals." Queen's and McGill are the only Universities in Canada with competi tive racing teams and hence are a part of the American College Circuit, she explained. The circuit includes all of the Ivy league schools amongst about "The world championship is actually a more challenging event because there are more sailors in it. In the Olympics, there's only one boat allowed from each country. " -- Claudia Strobele w e're definitely not even breaking even." she said. "You pretty much always have to pitch in some. Being on the national team definitely helps. You get your monthly allowance and the national coach will then be coaching me and that's good because coaching is always expensive if you're trying to fund that on your own." "Hamilton (Yacht Club) has been really good with that. Their graduate program ... provides coaching which is a big help and they do a lot of fundrais ing and stuff." Strobele has a rigorous training and competition schedule. She has sailed two regattas with her Queen's University team this year, so far. 50 other U.S. colleges. "College racing is tons o f fun because the races are only about 20 minutes long, meaning the fleet is very tight, and there is always lot's of action. It's also nice because the schools supply the boats -- so you don't need to worry about trailoring boats back and forth to all the venues." While the Olympic Games manage to capture the imagination of both the public and the aspiring athletes, Strobele sees it a little differently. "That's a lot of people's ultimate goal (2004 Olympics). I'd say that's one of my ultimate goals but I have to say that the world championship is another of my ultimate goals, per se. "The world championship is actual ly a more challenging event because there are more sailors in it. In the Olympics, there's only one boat allowed from each country." At the last world championships, two years ago, for instance, the top 10 sailors featured four from Australia and two from Holland. "So in the top 10 in the "world there are four sailors who don't compete at the Olympics. So that's what ends up happening and that's why the world championship is often a more challeng ing event." Some sports have been injected with an almost mythical quality, like Field of Dreams for baseball and the recent Legend of Bagger Vance for golf. And Strobele, who grew up along the waterfront in Oakville, has that feeling about her sport as well. "What I like about sailing, the rea son the sport is sort of unique, is because the wind is your medium, it's like your energy, basically. "And it is invisible. ·"The way I sort of think of it, you go out in the day and you see nothing but water. But by the end of the day you've sort of figured out the wind. "So it's like a maze that you've now drawn for yourself in your head, and it's invisible. And that's the challenge, is to figure out where that maze is and the quickest way through it. "And the maze is also shifting throughout the day because the wind patterns are always changing." Matt White captures checkered flag at Mosport Oakville's Matt White jumped into the early lead of the 2001 Canadian Formula Ford Series with a victory at Mosport International Raceway on Sunday. The victory gave White 20 points and the lead in the championship. White will go for two in a row when he competes in round two in Montreal at the Air Canada Grand Prix. In Thursday's practice session, White consistently post ed times under 1:30:000 and unofficially set a new track record for quickest time on Hankook tires. But on the first qualifying session on Friday, White complained of steering troubles and problems with his tires during the first qualifying session. He ended the session in seventh position. On Saturday's second qualifying session White consis tently placed times under 1:30:000 and was able to make his unofficial track record set on Thursday, official on Saturday. White posted the fastest time of 1:29:585 with an average speed of 98.815, which was good enough to give him the pole position for Sunday's race. White jumped into an early lead Sunday and by the sec ond turn of the first lap he began to pull away from the pack and increased his lead throughout the race crossing the fin ish line approximately 9 seconds ahead of the second place driver Josh Schreiber. Photo by Barrie Erskine Oakville's Matt White grabbed the lead early and never looked back at Mosport on Sunday.