There were some very happy faces - and a few sad ones too - at Weymouth on the day the members of the British Olympic Sailing Team were announced. It's always an emotional moment, both for those who have earned the right to go to the Games, and for those whose Olympic dreams will have to wait another four years, or perhaps come to an end altogether.

A year ago it would have been unthinkable that Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks were not going to Qingdao next year. Olympic bronze medallists and twice World Champions, Draper and Hiscocks have been the most successful and consistent 49er team of the past five years. Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes had been nipping at their heels for some time without every actually beating them internationally, until making the breakthrough at the end of last year's season with victory at the European Championships in Weymouth.

That was the first time Morrison/Rhodes had beaten Draper/Hiscocks in a major regatta, but it proved to be a tipping point. Since Weymouth, the up and coming team have gone from strength to strength, standing on the podium of every big regatta over the past season, culminating in victory at the World Championship and Olympic Test Regatta. For Draper and Hiscocks, 2007 did not go as planned. With the exception of Hyeres, where they won, it was a poor season by their standards.

Draper and Hiscocks knew the writing was on the wall after their rivals' outstanding performances in Cascais and Qingdao, although they will wish their friends and team mates well in their bid to secure gold in China next year.

If only relations were as harmonious in the Yngling class. Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson might have been selected for the Olympics, but it was Shirley Robertson who grabbed the media limelight on the day of the announcement. Just minutes after Tim Hancock, chairman of the Olympic Steering Group, had unveiled the Olympic team at Weymouth, BBC News ran a story on the announcement which barely mentioned those selected but focused instead on an interview with Shirley which had been recorded in Cowes the evening before.

Shirley was angry that the selectors hadn't extended the trials, and some of them she wouldn't even know if she walked past them on a beach. It's hard to see what Shirley was trying to achieve from this tirade. Were the selectors going to backtrack on their decision? Hardly. Or was it to gain valuable column inches and air time for her sponsors? More likely. Shirley is the most successful female Olympic sailor of all time, and now she's proving equally adept at working the media. Even in adversity she is a sponsor's dream, and Shirley will be in hot demand as a TV pundit for next year's Games. Although whether or not she could stomach watching her former team mates from Athens - the Sarahs - going for gold in Qingdao is another matter.

Another selection that a year ago was hard to call was that of the Men's 470. When Nic Asher and Elliot Willis won the 470 Worlds in China a year ago, they were throwing down the gauntlet to established players Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield, who had suffered from a lack of time on the water after Nick broke his wrist in a mountain bike accident. That said, Rogers and Glanfield did manage to win the Olympic Test Regatta last year, and took silver this year, so they are showing excellent form for the tricky conditions in Qingdao. They deserve to go to the Games for this, their third Olympiad.

Asher and Willis took the news in good spirit. Fortunately the British 470 squad shares a great spirit of cooperation that historically hasn't always been there. If our 470 boys win gold next year, Nic and Elliot will be able to take a good deal of credit for having helped Nick and Joe achieve it.

"We have a good squad," says Nick of their open-policy training sessions. The younger team's prowess in sailing the 470 in light winds through difficult chop was also one of Nick and Joe's weak points. For two weeks last year in Qingdao, under the watchful eye of 470 coach Tom Saunt, Nick and Joe set about turning that weak point into a strength. "It's having the confidence to know when you're wrong. We were just way off the mark. Tom Saunt gave us the flexibility and direction to throw everything out the window and start again - equipment, settings and technique. The conditions out there are so radical, so we decided to try radical things."

Asking what those radical things were elicited the response, "I'd tell you but I'd have to kill you." But truth be told, even if Nick did tell me the secret I probably still wouldn't understand it. The differences in sailing technique at this level are so subtle you can barely pick them apart on video or even with the naked eye. Unpicking a technique that has served you reasonably well for the best part of a decade, and working on building up a new unfamiliar technique is a brave move. It's like a professional golfer altering his golf swing and starting from scratch.

But Nick knew there was a better way, and he had to know the answer. "Nic and Elliot are really strong in those conditions and they'd been giving us an absolute pounding. It became our job to learn what they were doing." Eventually the ‘A-ha' moment arrived. "We learned it in an hour one afternoon," says Nick, cryptically. Over the next few days Nick and Joe put that discovery into practice until they had perfected it. Now their weakness had become a strength, and they are looking better equipped to go and win that gold. If they do, remember that Nic and Elliot helped them get there.

Hopefully these two Men's teams will also be able to get the selected Women's 470 team up to speed in the tricky Qingdao chop. Christina Bassadone and Saskia Clark were on tenterhooks as to whether they would get the nod now, or if they would have to continue a prolonged selection trial into early next year. Despite finishing a disappointing and below par 12th in Qingdao, they did win bronze at the windy Cascais Worlds, and their overall form has been good enough to earn them early selection.

This will be helmswoman Christina's second time to the Games, but crew Saskia's first. She was over the moon to be selected, but any celebrations will be shortlived as the underperformance in Qingdao still looms large in the memory. "Being a little bit slow in China made our decisions a bit more extreme," says Saskia. "We were losing lanes, falling out of lanes a bit too easily. It's such close racing in Qingdao. We came 12th but it was very close up to 5th, and any of the top five could have won gold, going into the Medal Race." So small gains could make massive improvements in the result.

It didn't help that they got a black flag in the first race, which immediately put them on the back foot. Not that they lost heart, that isn't in their natures, but their lack of speed meant they never really got in the hunt for the medals. Nor did the Dutch team who a month earlier had won their third consecutive World Championships. Saskia wasn't surprised to see them struggle on Chinese waters. "That was their first time in Qingdao. It's not their speciality. I wasn't expecting them to do so well."

Christina and Saskia's strength is that they are a good heavy-weather package despite being one of the smaller teams. Once they can learn the Nic and Elliot way of sailing upwind in light airs and nasty chop, their light weight should stand them in good stead. As we've seen with the Medal Race days both this year and last, Qingdao is still capable of the odd windy day. And when it is windy, it soon kicks up to a Hayling Bay style chop, which makes racing tough, and capsizing an ever-present danger.

A bit of the nasty stuff would suit our girls just fine. "I think it was a pretty big shock to the people who lost weight after Cascais to have to go and do a windy Medal Race," says Saskia. "We're quite light but I think we're still pretty good in the breeze. Percentage-wise I think being lighter is going to pay in China."

Saskia's boyfriend Paul Goodison lost about 8kg in the month between Cascais and Qingdao. His crash dieting paid off, as he took gold for the second year running in China, and he has also been selected. Olympic Manager Stephen Park believes ‘Goody' and Ben Ainslie hold a strong psychological advantage as the only two sailors going into the Games who remain undefeated on Qingdao waters.

Of course, in suggesting Ben has been selected, we shouldn't be jumping the gun. At the time of writing, both Ben and the Star team of Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson had yet to be confirmed for Olympic nomination due to discussions that need to take place between Team Origin and the RYA. We are told that we'll know more by 1 October, by which time the two parties will have discussed how they are going to share these three valuable sailors between them over the coming year.

The situation is all a bit strange, but Ben sounds unconcerned. He believes Origin will give him the time required to get ready properly for Qingdao. After all, as he points out, it would be somewhat surprising if Sir Keith Mills - the man behind London's successful bid for the 2012 Games - were to stand in the way of his Olympic dreams. So I'm sure an amicable arrangement will be reached, although it was very odd that we couldn't get a clearer statement about these sailors on the day.

Others to secure nomination were Leigh McMillan and Will Howden in the Tornado, and the RS-X board sailors Nick Dempsey and Bryony Shaw. The only spot that is still wide open is the Laser Radial, where the four best sailors will continue a selection trial that has yet to be determined, but which will doubtless include the World Championships in New Zealand early next year. Like the 470s mentioned earlier, there is a good spirit of cooperation between the Radial sailors. Let's hope this collaborative work ethic raises the whole squad's standard to the point where the eventual candidate has a shot at the podium in China. If that happens, then Skandia Team GBR will have produced a serious medal contender for all 11 of the Olympic disciplines. The credit for that should go not just to those who are on their way to China, but also to those who have been left behind.