Olympic sailor Stevie Morrison admits he got his first taste for the water on an unforgiving Sussex beach.

Helm Morrison with crew Ben Rhodes are regarded as a medal hope in the 49er class after the pair fought off stiff opposition to be selected to compete in the sailing.

It will be the duo's second Olympics after a disappointing ninth place at Beijing in 2008 where they had been widely expected to bag a medal after a great run of results going into the Games.

They now have a second bite at the cherry and if they do get on the podium members at Pevensey Bay Sailing Club will be toasting Morrison's success as it was the place where he first took to the water on the knee of his father Phil.

Mind you, Morrison admits he was not exactly a duck to water despite his father being an accomplished sailor as well as a renowned dinghy designer.

Morrison, 33 (check on publication), said: “Our family history stems from Pevensey and it was the first place I sailed.

“It was the first place I grew attached to the sea.

“My dad was a pretty successful sailor and boat designer and grew up in Eastbourne.

“He was a world championship sailor himself although he never went to the Olympics.

“I was a bit of a late starter on the sailing and was far more interested in running around on the Crumbles down there and playing games, football and stuff like that. The sailing took place later.”

His time at Pevensey Bay has left an indelible mark on his memory, though.

He said: “I have raced and sailed a few times at Pevensey.

“I have really good memories of it. It's a pretty harsh place because of the pebble beach.

“It is a bit different now because the Eastbourne marina has been built and there is better access but when I was young there wasn't a marina and it was a case of pushing the boats out into quite big waves.

“You need quite a lot of skill to launch in those conditions.”

After Beijing, he went back to his old club to give a talk and among the youngsters hanging on his every word was Nikki Boniface, who has since got on the first rung of the Olympic programme and has ambitions of competing in Rio in 2016.

The rise of the next generation of sailors is something that excites Morrison.

He said: “It's a great club and Nikki is doing fantastically well.

“I met her when she was really young after the last Olympics and she has progressed into the youth end of the Olympic squad.

“It is really nice to see that they have kids interested down there because that is what it is all about.

“It's a brilliant place to sail - once you get out there. The only problem is the access off a steep beach.

“At Exmouth where I sail, you launch into an estuary so it's a lot easier.”

There has been nothing easy about gaining Olympic qualification for Morrison and Rhodes for London.

In fact, selection itself is a notable achievement in a class that has a depth of talent rarely seen in other sports.

Morrison said: “In the 49er class, four, and sometimes five, of the world's top ten are British.

“It's a fast, fun and spectacular boat to sail so it attracts a lot of people.

“You are both out on the trapeze, on wings, so you are a long way from the middle of the boat.

“It means that you have a very high power to weight ratio like a Formula One car and if you don't use all that power properly, you will spin off the track.

“That is the difference between us and Ben Ainslie and people like that. Their boats are smaller and slower.

“Only the windsurfers are faster in high winds. Other than them, the 49er class is the fastest by quite a distance and because of that it attracts people in and strength breeds strength.

“The Skandia GB policy is to involve the whole squad and get them to work together to try to keep raising the standard. It certainly keeps you on your toes.”

Morrison also admits that selection was far from plain sailing this time compared to China when their results made them the obvious choice.

He said: “When we were selected for China we were winning everything. Not just British championships but all over the world and it was always going to happen.

“This time there has been generally a British person doing well at every event but often a different person each time.

“While we were confident at Weymouth and felt we were the top boat consistently, that did not mean we were always the best.

“There was less euphoria this time because we hadn't kicked the door down.

“But if you stand back and take a subjective look at the important results, we had the best by quite some way, but you could not point to one event and say it was that.

“Because people did not know the selection procedure, it was not that obvious who would be picked but we knew and we ticked a couple of boxes while nobody else ticked any.”

Morrison and Rhodes admits that being selected was “liberating” because the training has all been about them since that announcement in May.

Morrison said: “We had always been planing to sail at Weymouth on July 30 but once it was happening we could use the fact we have the strongest squad and world's best competition around us.

“Up until then there were four crews and everyone had an equal say. Every crew had their own strengths and each would want to do their own thing so the coaches would be pulled four ways.

“Now it has been about what we want to do and the squad has helped us with that.

“It gives you more focus to do exactly what you want to do.

“It was liberating and obviously exciting.

“I hadn't thought about the Olympics being in London just because the thought of not being there was too crap.

“If we hadn't been selected I would have just buried my head in the sand and ignored the fact the Olympics were happening.

“Fortunately I don't have to do that.”

Olympic manager Stephen Park admits that consistency was the key to the duo's selection in a class with a depth of quality and numbers matched only by the Finn.

He said: “The challenge with the 49er was to get people who can medal consistently.

“What we don't see in the 49er, by the very nature of the competitiveness of the class, not just in the UK but worldwide, is one stand out performer.”

He added: “With every event it was difficult as ultimately we were looking for people who could perform with consistency at podium level. That was difficult because nobody really stuck their head above the parapet so therefore it was a situation of who has done it with the most regularity, who has the experience that's going to count when it comes to Games time and that's why the selection committee went the way it did.”

Team GB have a target of four Olympic medals and one paralympic medal.

Morrison would love to win one of them and hopes he and can Rhodes can peak at just the right time.

“Our form feels good but we know we are not there yet,” admitted Morrison.

“Last time we were ready way too soon. Now we feel like we are head down and running as fast as we can and that helps with our focus.

“We're very positive but we are work in progress.

“Last time around we had won this and that but people only remember how you did at the Olympics.

“So it's about winning that one event. We know we can do it but we also know we still have a lot of work to do.

“We want to win and do our best. We believe if we do our best then it will be good enough to win. But we'll see.”

Schedule

July 30th start, noon then 15 races until August 6.

August 8, 1pm (medal race) 

FACTFILE:

• Date of birth: 25/11/1978
• Place of birth: Eastbourne.
• Olympic history: Ninth at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
• Honours: World Championships - gold 2001 (Italy) Fireball class; Bronze 2006 (Aix-les-Bains) 49er; gold 2007 (Cascais) 49er; silver 2008 (Sorrento) 49er.