LOWESTOFT sailing sensation Nic Asher insists experience will be everything as he and partner Elliot Willis bid to finally make their Olympic debut in three years time.

LOWESTOFT sailing sensation Nic Asher insists experience will be everything as he and partner Elliot Willis bid to finally make their Olympic debut in three years time.

Asher, from Carlton Colville, and Willis first started sailing together in the 470 class eight years ago and have since claimed two World Championship titles and last year's Skandia Sail for Gold crown.

However despite their success with only one British boat available the duo have twice been denied their Olympic bows by Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield - who picked up their second silver in Beijing last summer.

But with Glanfield ending a 12-year relationship with Rogers in March to take an 18 month break from the water, the Olympic door has opened for the 24-year-old Asher and Willis.

And Asher has vowed to end years of Olympic hurt once and for all in Weymouth in 2012.

'Looking forward to London 2012 our confidence is really high - there are things we have to work on before then but we have been sailing together since 2001 and we really know how each other works now,' said Asher.

'We've won two world championships among other titles and we know when things go wrong we have got the experience to know how to deal with it and turn it around quickly.

'We have been through the disappointment of not making the Olympic team for the Beijing Olympics, missing out to Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield but just being part of the training squad helped us to improve and it pushed them forward too. Suffering that disappointment only makes us more determined to make it to London 2012 and remembering that will spur us on.'

Asher and Willis have started the four-year Olympic cycle slowly failing to defend the World Championship title they won last year in August in Denmark, finishing 18th overall.

However after claiming back-to-back Skandia Sail for Gold titles last week at the Olympic venue in Weymouth, Asher admitted their London 2012 preparations are firmly on track.

'We had a good week, we had good speed all week and it's been a great end to a reasonably good season,' added Asher.

'We trained a lot before the Worlds but we didn't do as well there as we wanted. We didn't have any problems with speed but we weren't very sharp that week.

'We had to sit down have a chat and decide what we needed to work on to move forward and we decided to focus on the Skandia Sail for Gold regatta to really get a good result before the end of the season.'