Just before heading out of the door to Heathrow Airport this morning, I hear a BBC report of storm force winds about to hit southern areas of China, near Hong Kong where the Equestrian events of the Olympics will be taking place. Local authorities were telling people to move their cars to sheltered places where they might not blow over. Well, if the wind is strong enough to blow cars over, it sure as can blow horses over, and if it heads north to Qingdao, will surely blow boats over too.

With other typhoon warnings being talked about for the weekend – the beginning of the Olympic fortnight – how ironic would it be if the sailing were to be called off due to an excess of wind! It would be shades of Pusan all over again, when the 1988 Olympic Regatta was expected to be light but ended up being anything but.

A lot of athletes have been putting all their eggs in the light wind basket, and it would be a shame to have gone to all that trouble of dieting for nothing. One sailor who has had no such qualms is Aussie Finn sailor Anthony ‘Nocka’ Nossiter, who I’m told predicted the typhoons would hit Qingdao from months ago. Sounds like a great excuse to keep on eating the pies, if ever I heard one! Good on ya, Nocka. I hope your pie eating pays off, and that he and other sailors actually get to use their underused toe straps and trapeze wires.

Congratulations to Penny Clark, who has just been selected as GBR’s Olympic representative in the Laser Radial. This brings to an end the four-way battle for selection in one of the few classes where Great Britain’s chances are not all that strong. Having said that, Penny did win a bronze on Qingdao waters two years ago at the first Test Regatta.

Having recently won a surprise Bronze medal at the Women’s Laser Radial World Championships, Andrea Brewster will doubtless be disappointed that this wasn’t enough to keep her selection hopes alive. But Penny Clark has been the more consistent performer and this is doubtless what has given her the place ahead of her three team mates and rivals. The other two in the frame were Charlotte Dobson and Lizzie Vickers.

The British Olympic Association also announced the rest of the sailing team who were still to be formally confirmed, although there are no surprises here: RS-X sailors Nick Dempsey and Bryony Shaw; 470 teams Nick Rogers/Joe Glanfield and Christina Bassadone/Saskia Clark; and Tornado sailors Leigh McMillan/Will Howden.

Penny Clark commented: “I think the trials process for us has been really important preparation for China, and has actually been a good experience. There was lots of pressure on me heading into the Worlds as I felt the trials were mine to lose after Miami. Learning how to sail under pressure and still delivering a result at the Worlds has shown that I can carry it off – and working with the girls and training as a squad has played a big part in that.”

Like Penny Clark, Saskia Clark (no relation as far as I’m aware) will be a first-timer at the Games. “I am massively excited, we packed up our first two boxes last week and it’s a silly thing, but it indicated it’s all getting very close now. Everyone says the Olympics are a very different regatta and you don’t appreciate it until you’ve done one. But Christina competed at Athens and there are many other members of the team who have competed at past Games so I’ve been able to get an invaluable insight into what it’s likely to be like.

“From the outset Qingdao was a bit of a controversial choice of venue because of its reputation for the light winds but we have all just been getting on with it. At the Test Event last year, they managed to get a reasonable series of races in so it might not be as disastrous as some people have been forecasting but you never know and have to be ready for anything.”

Question: Do you think the sailors will get a full series of races in Qingdao? If they don’t, will the right people still win?