Paul Goodison

BBC Yorkshire Sports Personality

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 08:51:00 GMT

It has been a busy few weeks. I took the top prize at the BBC Yorkshire Sports Personality of the Year dinner held this year in Bradford. It was a great evening at it was a real privilege to sit on the same table as James Toesland last years winner and, Kevin Blakwell Sheffield United manager. The night was made even more special as my parents were also there to see me receive the prize.

I left Bradford and headed straight to Swansea for a week of mountain biking with a few friends. It wasn’t the warmest week but we had some fantastic riding around south wales, it did get a little icy in some valleys and it was pretty exciting riding in the dark with lights. It was all going really well until Saskia came off and after a trip to the hospital the diagnosis was a pretty serious broken collar bone. After another day of slightly more reserved riding it was time for an afternoon at the football to rest the legs.

After watching the mighty Sheffield United grab a point at Swansea it was off to Liverpool for the national BBC Sports Personality of the Year. It was another fantastic evening and a bit of a reunion with other medalists from Team GB. After the show there was a great party which was pretty surreal being surrounded by lots of TV stars and legendary athletes. It was pretty funny to be signing autographs and having your picture taken as you enter and leave the hotel.
I am back home in Weymouth now, and its back into fitness training in preparation for a cross country skiing trip to Austria post christmas where I will be joined by several other members of the Olympic team.

Have a good Christmas

A busy few weeks

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:24:23 GMT

Well it’s been quite a busy and exciting few weeks for me.

Today I was part of the opening committee for the new Olympic Sailing Centre at Weymouth and Portland Sailing Academy. The new site has grown somewhat over the last few months and is now completed, the first of the London 2012 sites and on budget!

The site today looked quite spectacular and with the sun shining it was a bit of an inspiration as I enter back into training with London 2012 firmly in my sights.

Over the last few weeks I have been involved with a lot of cool stuff. I have been at the Cycle show with Volvo looking at some pretty cool new bikes and deciding which would be best to kick start my fitness training. One of my toughest challenges has been to take on the Ryder Cup course for 2010. I played at the Volvo amateurs and lost a colossal amount of golf balls! I did however pull it out of the bag when the cameras were on birding the 450 yard first hole, it soon went downhill once we had escaped the cameras.

After returning from a friend’s wedding in Tobago I was thrown straight in at the deep end with my acting skills. I had three days of intense filming were I had to learn a script and perform in front of the cameras. It’s not quite as easy as it looks!!

Having cracked performing in front of cameras ishhhhh a new challenge came about as I was asked to be a stand in for Gladiators. What was I thinking? I had 3 days of training with James DeGale and Kieran Bracken, what a laugh. I even managed to keep laughing while James was beating me with the big sticks used on Duel. I managed to knock him off his feet a few times but never off the podium, each time it ended in me jumping off after taking way too many heavy blows.

Luckily for me, neither James or Kieran got injured so I didn’t get the chance to properly take any Gladiators down but I enjoyed watching the boys try.

Its back into training now as I start to focus on the next 4 years ahead and how we can improve for the next games. It has been great to take some time out but I need to start getting back into shape physically for the year ahead.

Roll on 2012

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 11:49:24 GMT

Wow!!!!!!
What an amazing few weeks its been.
Firstly Im sorry for not keeping you all up to date, Ive been pretty busy.
Here are a couple of highlights.
We all had an amazing reception on arriving home back to Heathrow where Saskias sister picked us up. While driving home it was so funny as little Alex held my medal against the window to every car passing by, one was pretty close to swerving in to us.
It was so nice to be home and to celebrate with friends and family.
For me finally getting back home to Rotherham to see my dad was great as he had not been out in China. We sat down and watched some of the olympic highlights together laughing at each other as we were on the tv close to tears or in tears!!!!
I had an amazing party at Ulley Sailing club where it all started many years ago, it was so nice to see some of the founder members who helped teach me how to sail along with school friends and family, wow what a night.
I also had another treet while at home, a trip to Bramall Lane. I am a big Sheffield United fan and they had invited me to down to the lane to lead the teams out and parade my medal. It was so cool to be walking round the stadium and being cheered by 30000 fans, even the Cardiff supporters!!!! What a day meeting the players and being tret like real vip’s even my Nan loved it!!
It was then finally back home to Weymouth over a week after landing back on British shores, it was so nice to be back in my own bed with a little bit of time to go windsurfing. We had an open top bus ride around Weymouth which was amazing, so many people turned out on to the streets to welcome us home, Nick Sarah, Bryony, Saskia and Bart were all on good form as we drove over the cause way nearly getting blown off the top of the bus.
The other real high light I nearly forgot was the Jonathon Ross show.
It was pretty cool being sat in the green room chatting to Kelly Brook!!!! and Mike Skinner from the streets oh. and Jonathon was quite a laugh too.
I feel like an office worker at the moment trying to organise my diary and reply to emails etc…. its quite hard work!!!
Im looking forward to getting back out on the water for a bit of fun with out the huge pressure and intensity, Ill see you out there!!!!

New Blog Site

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 10:53:53 GMT

Due to the Olympic Rules I am no longer aloud to write blogs on this site. I will be putting things up on my Blogspot.

www.paulgoodison.blogspot.com

Thanks
Paul

Next stop Qingdao

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 08:34:49 GMT

I write this yawning as i sit and wait for my next flight from Beijing to Quingdao. I didn’t catch much sleep on the flight so im fueling myself with caffeine to try and stay awake. It all feels very real having just validated my accreditation. Walking around in my team kit everybody seems interested in what im doing here and what sport im competing in, even getting my photo taken with Chinese ground staff at the airport.

I have just had a good weak at home with a mix of cycling, sailing and sitting at home waiting for the post man to arrive with a whole variety of packages of new ropes, tillers, wetsuits etc….

On Thursday I had one of the nicest sails in Weymouth ive ever had, the wind increased to over 20 knots from the South East as i sailed out of the harbour into the bay. The sun was shining as i was out heading up towards Lullworth with only a few mored tankers for company. I enjoyed some great rides home on the building swell before heading home for lunch.

I pulled out of doing a time Trial on my bike on Tuesday night as still felt a little tired from the Europeans but this left me all rested up for my first ever road race on Thursday night after a great days sailing.

I headed off with Alex Hopson the new local triathlon star!!! part time 49er crew, with both bikes in the back of the car out to Morton. After registering and paying for a temporary racing license we had enough time for a quick warm up. There were over 50 cyclists signed on and several of the elite group where warming up on turbo trainers which was a bit dawnting!!!

We started just after 7 about 2 minutes after the Elite group for 10 laps of the 4km course. It wasn’t the gentle started that id anticipated as we raced off with my heart rate pounding away.

After a few laps i was getting the hang of things and find myself leading out of one of the corners, the guy next to me said lets go as we put the pedal to the metal and tried to brake away. After a minute we managed to gain a bit of a lead on the pack, I looked at my heart rate to see it over 95% I put my head down and drove on, the next time i looked back everybody was right there behind us, GUTTED!!!!!!!!

I took a while to recover as i clung on to the back of the group for a lap. Having not learned from my mistake i tried again with another rider before being caught and getting a bit of an earful from one of the locals, I just smiled and pedaled on.

The pace increased as we entered the last 2 laps as several people tried break aways, with 2 corners to go 4 of the elite riders that had broken away came past, Alex and i managed to stay with them as we stretched out into the last corner for the last mile to home. Alex kicked hard as i clung onto the back and then sling shotted past for the sprint to the finish (the work horse, taking one for the team cheers mate). Two riders from the Elite group pulled away and I was just passed with 20 meters to go to take 2nd on the line!!!!! Alex sorted me out a treat but was swallowed up by the group just before the finish, I made sure i bought him a beer after….

It was a great experience to take part in my first road race and a great work out reaching heart rate intensities that are really hard to achieve with out the adrenaline pumping in a race situation. I had a great time and im sure ill be back for some more after China.

European Champion

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 15:45:05 GMT

After a really tough week in Belgium I came away as European Champion again, 4 in a row….
Back in January when we were planning my run in to the games I was unsure whether to compete in the Europeans. The conditions are very tidal even stronger than China which could be great practice but, if there was to be a low pressure system it could be very strong south westerly winds and sailing into nearly 2 knots of tide it could just be a hike off with predominantly upwind sailing, not ideal when you are trying to be small for the Olympics.
We decided it would be a good regatta to go to to practice racing having missed a few regattas this year to spend time training in china.
The South Westerly winds blew and blew making it a very physically challenging regatta with some of the first beats lasting over 30 minutes.
I rose to the challenge well even though i was way too light, i battled hard having surprisingly reasonable speed upwind allowing me to hang in there. I sailed really well all week, starting well and consolidating my positions and taking the opportunities when they came.
To become European Champion for the fourth year running in such challenging conditions gives me great confidence going in to the Olympics.
I now have a few days at home before flying out to China at the weekend.

The results can be seen below http://events.laserinternational.org/en/events/results/100z19

A Change of Tack

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:43:22 GMT

I’ve had a pretty good week at home training although the persistent wind has made it difficult to get out Laser sailing. I feel a bit sorry for the Moth sailors that are in weymouth who have sat in the club house as racing has been cancelled for the last three days and it doesn’t look so good today either.
I have managed to get a bit of windsurfing in each day followed by some cycling. Last night I was persuaded by one of the up and coming RSX sailors Richard Hamilton to go and have a go at a local time trial on my bike.
We turned up late after getting lost to register and receive our numbers and start order. I have never done one before so it was all a bit new and i felt well out of my depth. There where a lot of nice time trial bikes with Disc wheels and i seemed to be the only one with out tri bars!!!!
I sat on the start line waiting to leave a minute after Rich and i calmly asked the marshall what the course was!!! He smiled and gave me a quick run down of the 10 mile loop.
I started off hammer down and it wasn’t long before my legs where crying out for me to ease off, I slowly got into a rhythm but i still couldn’t see any body on the horizon so i kicked harder. In the distance I caught sight of a cyclist as i pushed on. I was so hoping it was Rich as i ground them down, I was gutted as i drew closer to see it wasn’t, I pressed on and went past concentrating hard to find the tight left hander as i didn’t want to miss the turn.
As we turned is was in to the wind for the last 4 miles. I passed another rider before getting Rich in my sites, I closed the distance but didn’t manage to catch him as I crossed the line in 24 minutes 45 seconds.
It was a great experience and Im pretty keen to have a go at some more.
Im sat on the ferry yawning as i head over to the Belgium for the Europeans, lets hope the rain stops and the wind allows some sailing!!!

Check out the cycling results below http://www.ccweymouth.co.uk/results/results.html

Olympic Clothing and a new Boat

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 22:56:27 GMT

Its been a busy few days.
On Wednesday I made the trip up to Northampton to collect a new boat ready for the Europeans. After swapping boats over it was off to the NEC to collect my Olympic Kit.
The whole process took nearly two hours as I was escorted from room to room trying each piece of kit on and getting sized up. I than sat in a waiting area with a few other sailors while our sizes where picked from stock before being packed into our nice new suitcases. The amount of stuff is amazing, two big bags one small bag and a suiter each, I struggled to squeeze both mine and Saskias kit in the car!
It was then off to Heathrow to Drop Saskia off before driving to Southampton to pick a box of sailing kit and then off home to Weymouth, getting home just after 12 quite a long day.
It was pretty exciting to pick up my Olympic clothing as it all starts to become very real, its nearly time and i cant wait!!!
I have had a few good days training in weymouth both on my bike and on the water. After 90km on the bike yesterday it was nice to go sailing today and take a closer look at the foiling moths in action as they prepare for there worlds next week. The wind increased and we had a great sail in the bay with some really nice waves before we reached home and i managed to get a sneaky windsurf in this evening!!!!

Round the Island and Back in Time for Lunch

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 22:16:00 GMT

After another good week of training in China I returned home on Friday for the JPMorgan Round the Island Race.
I taxied from the airport straight to Cowes for some Volvo corporate and media racing in J80’s before a Volvo bbq in the evening. Fighting off the jet lag I made it through to about 10pm before I passed out.
The morning of race day, was an early start with a wake up call at 4am!!! Thanks to the jet lag I was wide awake and ready for some racing.

I headed down to the boat I was skippering – a TP52 called ‘Team Volvo for life 1’ – to meet the rest of the crew. I was sailing with some of the Volvo Keelboat squad, 3 Journalists, a TV reporter Tanya Arnold from BBC North and her cameraman, I also had a special guest Kevin Blackwell the mighty Sheffield United manager.

We left the dock and headed out to sea at just after 5am on ‘Team Volvo for life 1’. We started in a building breeze and headed upwind to the needles, after turning the corner and popping the kite we were off at pace topping out at 22.5 knots boat speed. It was a great ride down the back of the Island with a few good broaches, the most exciting of which we charged down a wave flat out and piled into the back of the next wave as the spinnaker exploded and the boat broached out leaving most of the crew dangling from the guard rails.

It took a while to get sorted but the crew did an excellent job of retrieving the broken kite and getting another one ready. While just under mainsail we still managed to hit 19knots down the back of one wave. We set a new spinnaker and we were off again rounding the forts off Portsmouth before beating home to Cowes.

We finished the race at 11:10:53 in a time of 05:10:53, this left us 5th in class 0 and 29th overall not bad out of 1875 boats.

It was a great days or should i say morning of sailing thanks to the team work of all on board, thanks guys….. and thanks to Volvo for making it all happen.

China Camp

paulgoodison@mac.com (Paul Goodison) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 03:15:18 GMT

Im back out in China training again. Its quite nice this trip as most of the sailing team are here staying in the same hotel. The atmosphere is great and the competition is pretty high, pool, table tennis, tennis you name it theres always a challenge going on!!!
We have just had a really good week of training in quite a mixed range of conditions, it was pretty foggy again yesterday giving us a few navigational challenges to keep us on our toes. There is also quite a bit of weed in the water to avoid, despite the efforts of an armarder of fishing boats that go out everyday to pull it out of the water.
Today is a bit of a rest day so we are going to go and explore a bit this morning and play some more tennis this afternoon, it is quite a treat to have ball boys at the hotel but you soon get used to it.