Olympic medallist Chris Draper said he has "unfinished business'' to take care of as he starts to campaign full-time for the 2012 Games in his quest for gold.

The 31-year-old quit sailing after pushing himself too hard ahead of the Beijing Olympics and suffering "burn-out''.

He was just 28 when he prematurely retired from the sport but taking time out only proved how much he loves sailing.

Draper, who won bronze in Athens 2004 with Simon Hiscocks in the 49er class, is to start training full-time with his new crew Peter Greenhalgh next week once the pair finish the iShares Cup on Monday.

"I started to realise that I definitely hadn't given my Olympic sailing everything that I had got and I felt that there was unfinished business and I really wanted to go back and put together a campaign similar to Athens 2004 to ensure we win a medal again,'' he said.

"Peter and I are taking a bit of a risk because we both have opportunities.''

They will move into professional sailing after the Olympics, taking part in

events such as the iShares Cup, he said.

This weekend's final takes place in the Andalucian port of Almeria, Spain and the Olympic duo turn rivals for the Extreme 40 race, both sailing for Oman Sail but on different catamarans.

"We are giving these positions away to work on the 49er but if we go and win a gold medal our future in the sport will be a lot brighter,'' he said.

Draper, who lives near Weymouth, learnt a lot from his break and said: "At the time we were really disappointed with the bronze medal and Simon and I felt

we could have done a lot better.

"In hindsight it was a great achievement and it's sad we didn't realise it at the time.''

The pair immediately started campaigning hard for Beijing and were world champions as 2008 approached.

But, Draper said: "We just went at it too hard and burnt out. Come 2007 when it started to get important, close to the Olympic selection, I wasn't sure if sailing was what I wanted to do any more.

"I lost my enjoyment for it and our results showed that, big time.

"We took Olympic selection too much for granted and before we knew it, it had been and gone and we weren't selected.''

Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes went instead, finishing in ninth.

One lesson he learnt from it was to train with Team GBR as long a possible.

Morrison and Rhodes made a "big jump'' forward and left him and Hiscocks behind when they stopped training together in the run-up to Beijing.

He said: "This time we will keep our rivals as close as possible.''

Competition for the British place in the Australian-dominated 49er class is fierce with strong contest from Morrison and Rhodes, Paul Campbell-James and Mark Asquith and up-and-coming stars John Pink and Rick Peacock.

"It's really difficult because there's only one of us that gets to go to the Olympics and everybody wants to be the one,'' he said.

The pair's goals include finishing on the podium at the World Championships in the Bahamas in January, and winning in 2011, while performing strongly on the Olympic waters during the annual Sail for Gold regattas which will "grow in importance'' as it gets closer to 2012, he said.

Draper and Greenhalgh came fourth in the last event in September after racing together for five months.

Hiscocks retired from his 2012 Olympic campaign with Dave Evans after the event at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy in Dorset.

Draper said: "It's really sad. It wasn't going as well as he hoped with Dave but he has a huge knowledge base and hopefully he will come back and help the British squad achieve success.''

Racing in the iShares Cup, where he first met Greenhalgh, has helped him regain his joy for the sport.

He also realises his campaign is more of a "marathon'' than a sprint'' and the importance of "down time'' to make sure the pair are "right at the top of the selection tree'' for 2012.