Contender

Success comes swiftly to some. Windsurfer Lucy Horwood is only 20 yet she's already ranked second in the world. She describes herself as an easy-going, sociable sort who loves animals, Bob Marley and Macy Gray - and hates Steps, Boyzone and bananas, although not necessarily in that order.

Dating fellow windsurfing champ Dan Ellis - currently rated fifth in the UK - is a potentially tricky scenario, but she handles it with surefootedness. 'Things can get tricky if one person does well at an event and the other's had a bad day,' she says. 'You very quickly learn when to keep a low profile and avoid winding each other up. But most of the time it's a mutually supportive situation and we enjoy training together.' Combining a degree in sport and exercise science at Cardiff University with competing on a global level can be frantic too. She only just made it to the European Championships in Poland as she was sitting an exam two days before the event started. 'It isn't ideal,' she admits. 'I like to have a week to get used to any idiosyncrasies. The water isn't like a running track that's universal wherever you go - conditions are peculiar to each individual location as well as being subject to the weather on any given day.'

Horwood's love affair with salt water began in Greece. 'I spent the first couple of years of my life there and I was in the sea all the time,' she recalls. The family's next stop was the coastal hamlet of Llanbedrog on the gorgeous Lleyn Peninsula in North Wales, where they still live. 'My idea of a nightmare is to be miles from the sea,' she asserts. 'I couldn't cope with living somewhere like Birmingham.'

Horwood says her passion for windsurfing was inherited from her father, Philip. 'He had such a lot of fun, I had to give it a go. I loved it straight away, even though I had no balance to begin with.'

By the age of 13 she was a regular on the competitive circuit. 'Once I realised I could be very good I abandoned the other sports I enjoyed like horse riding and hockey. It's a pity to ditch things you like, but you can't succeed unless you're focused.'

Horwood's record in women's events has brought her immense satisfaction. But there's one moment that she particularly relishes. 'I came second in an amateur male race,' she remembers. 'Men hate being beaten by women, so it was a great moment.'