With the ISAF World Sailing Championships done and dusted, the RYA has some hard decisions to make about whom to select to represent Team GBR at the Beijing Olympics. And there’s no more thumping headache than the choice between Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson’s winning Yngling crew and Team Shirley Robertson.

Ever since the Gold Medal winning ‘three blondes in a boat’ split up and went their separate ways this head-to-head has been a possibility. Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson performed superbly this week and, if they get picked, they have earned their place. But Shirley Robertson argues that she, Annie Lush and Lucy Macgregor are only just getting into gear after the birth of Shirley’s twins and they have more improvement to show.

But I don’t think her latest comment sounds too confident. “If the RYA selectors think it’ll benefit Skandia Team GBR’s chances of winning another gold medal in the Yngling class, we want to continue,” she says. “In some ways we really feel this should really be the beginning not the end! For now we will have to sit back and wait.”