The British Sailing Team’s Micky Beckett scored a crucial victory in the countdown to Paris 2024, winning the Princess Sofia Regatta in Palma for the third consecutive year.

Beckett, 29, dominated the men’s dinghy class at the traditional Olympic classes season opener, wrapping up the win in the 193-boat fleet with a day to spare.

Beckett’s gold let the way in a three-medal haul for the Brits, with John Gimson and Anna Burnet winning bronze in the Nacra 17 and young gun Matilda Nicholls also taking bronze, her first medal at senior level, in the ILCA 6.

Beckett would have gone into the 10-boat double points medal race safe in the knowledge that no-one could topple him from the top spot, such was his lead.

The Welshman refused to rest on his laurels, finishing second in the medal race to win by an enormous 44 points.

Beckett’s Australian arch-rival Matt Wearn, the reigning Olympic and world champion, finished fifth.

“I’ve been trying all week not to think about the fact that if I won this event, it would be three in a row, but now it’s real, and it’s pretty cool,” said Beckett, who booked his Paris spot with Team GB in October last year.

“I came here with more confidence, having won twice previously, but also more pressure.

“All the top guys will be following their own plans to build up to this summer, but I have to say that beating them is a nice confidence boost.

“This win means that something’s working, but it doesn’t mean that the job is done or that anything is guaranteed.

“ILCAs are simple boats, and all you have are your skills and your decision-making. That’s worked for me this last week but it doesn’t guarantee it will work in a few months’ time. There’s plenty more work to be done.”

ILCA 6 success for Erdi

Hungary’s new European champion Maria Érdi added the Sofía title in the ILCA 6 women’s dinghy with a ninth in the Medal Race which was won by France’s Louise Cervera.

Australia’s Zoe Thomson finished second overall and Britain’s young Mathilda Nicholls took her first senior World Cup medal in third. The Hungarian took encouragement from her performance against a field stacked with Olympic contenders.

Erdi said: “Palma is always such a high-scoring event I knew at the beginning of the week that it was going to be extremely tricky and I would have to fight for every point and we also saw that we would get a variety of conditions and so I knew I would have to just chip away.

“I did not have a lot of good first-mark roundings and so the key was my downwind speed and I performed on the very tricky light winds days when a lot of people score big points. And so I am very proud of my performance over the week over the conditions. Everyone is here, all of the Paris 2024 rivals were here, and a lot seemed to be struggling but I am super stoked that my best friend Zoe Thomson finished in second place.”

Programme curtailed

Very light winds curtailed the final day programme and the 49erFX women’s skiff, iQFOiL men’s and women’s windsurfing and the 470 mixed dinghy events had their finale cancelled, which meant their standings from Friday stood.

The ILCA 7 men’s dinghy title had already been won with a day to spare by Team GB’s Micky Beckett and, while the Nacra 17 mixed multihulls did their Medal Race, the Palma title was already in the bag for Italy’s Olympic champions Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti. Germany’s Philipp Buhl finished runner-up ahead of his French training partner and fellow former World Champion Jean Baptiste Bernaz.

Italy take home both men and women’s skiff titles as Jana Germani and Giorgia Bertuzzi won by a single point. Germani said: “Winning here is really important for us because we see that all the training and the hard work is paying off. It's four more months until the Games, and we will push every day for the best result of our career.”

French 470 success

The result also stood for the 470 mixed dinghy where the French duo of Camille Lecointre and Jeremie Mion denied the local Spanish hopes of their new world champions Jordi Xammar and Nora Brugman.

They, too, won by just one point with three German crews in the top five. Simon Diesch and Anna Markfort in fourth still lead their Olympic selection trials which will conclude at the Europeans in Cannes.

Mion said: “The key this week has been to be consistent and polyvalent because across the week we had strong light and medium winds. It is always the same thing in sailing, you have to be fast and to be fast in every conditions. And also to stay very open-minded on what was happening on the water.

“This was not a classic Palma like we all know. We had to look every time at the others and to the wind to see what can happen. Now also that we are approaching the Olympics, I think one of the keys is to stay together on the boat, to have very, very good communication and trust each other until the end.”

While Spain was denied the opportunity for a win in the 470s, there was home-grown glory in the 49er men’s skiff where second in the 10-boat showdown was enough for Diego Botin and Florian Trittel to finally land the Sofia title which has eluded them over the years.

Botin smiled: “It is a special day for us, because we have just won our first Princesa Sofía, which is a very special regatta that we have been coming to all our lives. We've been close but we've never won it before.”

Poland’s Pawel Tarnowski was another event leader who endured the nervous wait for wind. Admitting his preference would have been to race in the men’s iQFOiL decider, the two-times past Sofía winner in the RS:X class commented: “It is a shame we didn't have a chance to race the Medal Series. But overall, speaking of all the races of the week, I'm super happy. I think I’ve basically got faster through the winter, that's for sure. I am a bit more patient, a bit more calm.

"My mentality when it comes to pressure has improved, some of which comes from being a new dad and having a kid. I was afraid that maybe it would be difficult but my baby and my wife give me so much motivation.”

Team GB sailor Micky Beckett believes he can still beat all-conquering Aussie Matt Wearn at the Olympics after banking bronze at the World Championships.

The Welsh star, whose home port is the Irish seaport of Pembroke, overcame a tough start in Adelaide to reach the podium yet again at a major event in the ILCA 7 boat class.

Beckett - already selected for this summer’s Games - brushed off a penalty in qualifying to win bronze with 41 points, an ocean ahead of fourth place.

“It was a hell of a week,” said Beckett, from Solva, Pembrokeshire. “The task to go one better than silver last year was always going to be enormous, even without the circumstances that we faced.

“The conditions were familiar, but it still was not a job done, I had one unfortunate rules incident on day one and started in tenth.

“I had to work my way up through the field and it was absolutely gruelling. It was the toughest week of sailing of my life. I’m battered and bruised but to have the composure to finish that high up in the field in conditions that don’t suit me is very pleasing.”

Beckett’s points tally in the 11-race regatta was more than enough to beat Germany’s Philipp Buhl, who finished fourth with 65. But gold standard still belongs to Wearn, out on his own with three race wins and only two counting finishes outside of the top three.

Wearn overtook Beckett to win gold at last year’s worlds and on Olympic waters in Marseille at the Test Event, with this the latest chapter in a compelling rivalry.

ILCA7 WORLDS - 30-1-2024 - 02338

“Matt has clearly set the benchmark for what needs to be done to win,” said Beckett. “He sails in a consistently good way and often, not far off perfection.

“But I know I can beat him, particularly in the kind of conditions we’re going to get in the Mediterranean. There’s a bit of work to do to get there but it’s motivating to have him setting such a high benchmark. Australia is a very strong nation across the board.

“To win the biggest Championships, it’s all about consistency. It’s not that attractive a thing to work on, but winning the top regattas is about putting out 11 solid races.

“I’m good at doing eight or nine at the moment. I have to work out how to stay out of trouble in those other two and how to put together the kind of consistent series that’s going to challenge Matt.”

The opening day took place in glamour conditions, with Beckett ending it in seventh but Swanage's Sam Whaley frustrated after seeing the second race called off when he was leading by a significant margin.

“Moments like that do reassure you that I’m doing the right thing and on the right path, it was only an act of nature that stopped me from winning it,” Whaley (pictured below) reflected. “It’s unlucky but that’s the sport we’re in.”

Beckett jumped into second place with a pair of wins in light winds on day three as Whaley finished an impressive second in the sixth race of the 11-race regatta.

A gusty fourth day brought a massive physical test, but Beckett was able to stay in touch, trailing Wearn by just one point at that stage.

Wearn took a nine-point lead into the medal race that he went on to win, with Beckett placing fifth.

Whaley led the rest of the British Sailing Team in finishing 18th, with Dan Whiteley coming 45th, James Percival-Cooke 60th and Fin Dickinson 72nd.

Dickinson, from Hayling Island, said: “It’s been a tricky week. I don’t think I clicked with this venue very well, I never found myself doing things that resulted in me ending up near the front of the fleet. It’s not particularly an event-focused year for me, I’m just trying to work on my fitness.”

The ILCA 7 squad now have a quick turnaround to the European Championships in Athens later this month.

“I’d really hope that at the Europeans I can show what I can really do, that’s the perfect place to do it I think, straight after this, still hungry to do well and do as best as you can," said Percival-Cooke.

Beckett will test himself against the best on two further occasions before the ILCA 7 racing at the Olympics begins on 1 August.

He will return to action at the traditional European curtain-raiser, the prestigious Trofeo Princesa Sofia in Palma, from 29 March to 6 April.

French Olympic Week at Hyeres, a regatta he describes as a ‘half-time check-in’, follows from 22-29 April and acts as the last chance qualifier in other boat classes.

Beckett does not need to worry about qualification or selection having been part of an initial group of ten sailors named to Team GB in October.

“[Being selected] definitely gives you that peace of mind,” said Beckett. “All it’s about now getting to the Games in the best possible shape to win the gold medal.”

The Irish Sea-based Micky Beckett secured his second consecutive Princess Sofia Trophy win as the British Sailing Team brought home four golds and two silvers from the iconic Palma regatta on Saturday.

Beckett dominated the ILCA 7 fleet over the six days of competition, building up such a points lead that he wrapped up the win with a day to spare.

As Afloat reported previously, the win picks up where Beckett left off last season, during which he finished on the podium in all but one regatta.

“I feel awesome,” said Beckett from Solva, Pembrokeshire. “It was a beautiful day, and I’m really happy. This week has been great. I’ve never had an experience before in sailing where it’s all been sewn up a day early, and there’s been zero pressure in the medal race – it really was a dream. This time two years ago, I never imagined that winning this regatta once was possible, let alone twice. I’m speechless.”

The Princess Sofia Trophy regatta is the season opener for the Olympic classes, and this year more than 1,300 athletes took part, including 73 from the British Sailing Team and British Sailing Squad.

With just over a year until Paris 2024, the British Sailing Team shot out of the blocks, with Sam Sills, Emma Wilson, John Gimson and Anna Burnet, Connor Bainbridge and Ellie Aldridge all joining Beckett on the podium.

Six medals across the ten Olympic classes saw Britain top the overall medal table for the event.

Sills and Wilson both exorcised their medal race demons to take gold in the men’s and women’s iQFOiL, the new foiling windsurfer for Paris 2024.

Both athletes have been dominant in their fleets in recent regattas but have fallen foul of the iQFOiL winner-takes-all format of the final race – until now.

“Honestly this win means a lot,” said Sills, from Launceston in Cornwall. “There’s so much hard work that’s gone into it. It’s a really special moment.”

Olympic bronze medallist Wilson, from Christchurch, Dorset, added: “I’m super happy. It was a long week and I didn’t think it was going so well initially but I just kept going. I haven’t had the best track record of medal races but I said to myself that this time I’ve got this.”

Olympic bronze medallist Emma Wilson from Dorset

In the Nacra 17 fleet Tokyo 2020 silver medallists Gimson and Burnet went into the final race in second with an eight-point gap to leaders Vittorio Bissaro and Maelle Frascari of Italy.

But a stellar second in the medal race saw them jump into the top spot overall to claim their first regatta win since being crowned world champions in 2021.

“This is such a big year in the run-up to the Olympics so it’s incredible to start it with a win,” said Burnet, from Rhu, Scotland.

“We had a bit on in the medal race to overhaul the Italians but we had a plan and stuck to it. It’s a real boost going into the rest of the season.”

Rounding off the medals were kite foilers Aldridge and Bainbridge, who both went one better than their bronze medals from the 2022 regatta.

“Our team had some outstanding performances and, as always, some areas to work on in what will be a very important year with country qualification on the line and an Olympic Test Event coming up,” said British Sailing Team performance director Mark Robinson.

“The outstanding performance for me was Micky winning back-to-back Trofeo Princess Sofia gold medals in different conditions each time and with a day to spare, in arguably one of the toughest and closest fought classes.

“To come home as top nation by a significant margin is down to all of the hard work our sailors, coaches and support staff have put in over the past winter.”

The British Sailing Team will return to action in two weeks at the Semaine Olympique Francaise in Hyeres, France.

For full results from the Princess Sofia Trophy click here.