Sailing star Saskia Tidey is trying something new on her approach to the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The Dun Laoghaire-born sailor will take to the water alongside teammate Freya Black in the 49er FX World Championships in Lanzarote from March 4-10 and having already booked their ticket to the Paris Games, the duo will have one less thing to worry about in Spain.
But Tidey revealed that their already cemented spot has not led to a laid-back attitude ahead of the looming Worlds, instead looking to knuckle down on their skills unlike any pre-Games run up she has had.
"Historically, having done three Olympic cycles now, I would use this Worlds as a bit of a dress rehearsal for the Olympics, but for us, we are definitely using it as a proper World Championships," she said.
"It's exciting because it's a different way to approach it but it creates a great opportunity to see where everyone else is at the moment and try to execute a number of our skills.
"However, it won't be a massive indicator of what we're going to be capable of at the Olympics.
"We've got a European Championships in May, which again, all the international boats will attend, so there are probably two other regattas between now and the Olympics which we feel are better-suited for us to go lay down a bit of a marker."
Tidey and Black finished fifth at the Sailing World Championships in the Hague last summer to clinch Team GB a spot at Paris 2024, later named as part of the first 10 athletes named on the sailing team heading to Marseille to compete in the Games.
But falling just short of the medal podium and a disappointing European Championships in September 2023 revealed a weakness in the duo's starting technique that they have worked hard at perfecting over the winter.
"We came off the back of last season with a personal best World Championships performance, qualifying the nation for the Olympics and in contention for medals but falling a bit short," said Tidey.
"So coming into this winter, we felt like we really wanted to work on our starting skills.
"We feel like that is quite a big feature for the Marseille venue come Paris so it's something we've been working quite hard on.
"Winter was a good opportunity to see what has a weakness and go work on it so we worked in the light winds in Portugal to do some of that starting practice.
"It feels like we've got a bit of flow in our performance now and we're just putting things together."
The 49er FX Worlds in Lanzarote will be the perfect opportunity for the British sailors to put their new starting skills into action in what is expected to be a highly-competitive fleet.
And after a couple of days practising in the Spanish waters, Tidey is confident that their extensive preparation will be the key to their success.
"There's still a lot of in-country qualification going on at this Worlds, which means that quite a few people are having to bring their A game, so that creates a really high-quality fleet," she said.
"We've been in Lanzarote for about five days just been doing some practice racing with a few other international boats, trying to analyse the race course areas.
"There are some directions of wind here that require quite a commitment to a side of the course and can generally tend to cause a lot of pressure on the start when getting out ahead of the group.
"We've had lots of little regattas, which have given us a really good opportunity to take some videos and analyse the starting practice with our coach. So, it's go time."
Follow the British Sailing Team on Instagram at @britishsailing
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