54th Trofeo Princesa Sofia Mallorca by FERGUS - Day 5
by Trofeo S.A.R. Princesa Sofía 5 Apr 02:57 BST
28 March - 5 April 2025
Michael Beckett (ILCA 7) - 54th Trofeo Princesa Sofia Mallorca by FERGUS © Sailing Energy / Trofeo Princesa Sofía
Sofía as the first major Olympic sailing regatta of the Los Angeles 2028 cycle, the Balearics' giant 54 Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca by FERGUS Hotels rolls into Saturday's big finalé, the Medal races, there may be four of the 10 classes with the mathematical odds heavily stacked in the favour of the respective event leaders but only one event has already been one with a day to spare.
Micky Beckett, GBR's Paris 2024 representative, extended his remarkable Bay of Palma record to win the 176 strong ILCA 7 class for a fourth successive time in the Men's singlehander, bettering the three times record of his compatriot Paul Goodison, the 2008 Olympic gold medallist, who won the class in 2001, 2008 and 2008.
"Winning for a fourth time here is actually much, much more important to me than I was saying at on at the start of the week" grinned a visibly relieved Beckett.
Incredibly the 30 year old Welsh sailor has won with a day to spare three out of four times and today triumphs in a fleet which includes the both the Paris 2024 silver and bronze medal winners Pavlos Kontides of Cyprus and Stefano Peschiera of Peru.
Beckett will have the luxury of a stress free Saturday. That will not quite be the case France's 49er Men's Skiff World Champions Erwan Fischer and Clément Péquin who go into their 10 boat double points Medal showdown with a 21 points cushion. They only need to start and finish cleanly to be assured of collecting the Men's Skiff title which they won here in 2022.
And in the Mixed 470 class Britons Martin Wrigley and Bettine Harris are 18 points clear at the top of the standings, on the cusp of their biggest win as a duo.
Featured Class: ILCA 6/ILCA 7
As ever the standard in both the Men's ILCA 7 and Women's ILCA 6 is high and there is certainly no post Olympics slump in numbers, especially as the World Championships are in Qingdao, China in six weeks time. The two one design singlehander classes account for 288 entries in total, 174 men and 114 women representing over 40 nations. Of the Marseille Olympic medallists only Matt Wearn is missing from the Men's fleet and in the Women's gold winner Marit Bouwmeester has retired and silver medallist Anne Marie Rindom is absent. Norway's bronze medallist Line Flem Høst is 21st.
And it proved a very long tough day for the ILCA racers as the breeze shut off through the middle of the day leading to a long, long delay before their final races could be sailed.
The triumphant Beckett reported "That was a very long day. So far we in the ILCAs we have had punctual four hour days. Today was eight hours on the water with a lot of sitting around waiting. But now it is done. There was a lot of thinking today about what I needed to do so most of all I am super, super relieved." Said Bekcett, "I have a huge amount of respect for this regatta, I love it, but having won three times I have no good reason not to go out and try and win it a fourth time. I was all out to try and win it, despite saying otherwise, so now having done, particularly before the medal race, is awesome."
Ireland's Finn Lynch had a strong final day to move up to second ahead of Italy's Lorenzo Chiavarini who is third.
The Women's ILCA 6 is wide open going into the Medal Race Australia's Zoe Thomson, runner up in 2023, leads by three points ahead of Brit Daisy Collingwood. Maria Erdí, Hungary's past world champion and class winner here last year withdrew whilst leading overall. Coming back from debilitating back injury which compromised her Olympic medal challenge, Erdí is clearly on the mend and will be a threat at the ILCA 6 worlds.
Martin Wrigley and Bettine Harris are in the box seats to win the Mixed 470 division after a solid last day saw them consolidate their lead ahead. Many would say Wrigley deserves a full on, straightforward Olympic challenge this time. He was training partner to Luke Patience and Chris Grube for Tokyo, started a Paris 2024 campaign with gold medallist Eilidh McIntrye which quickly halted when McIntyre elected to retire. And then after going to the Paris test event he and Harris were pipped for selection by a late charge from Grube and Vita Heathcote.
"We are so happy. We are not there yet but we have to just go out tomorrow and make sure we don't snatch defeat from the jaws of victory." Wrigley enthused, "We had such a short season last year. It ended early because we lost the trials and so to come here and start the cycle strong is great. All we could as for is to lead going into the Medal Race. I was ill last year and missed this regatta and Bea has been ill recently so we have not had much sailing at all, so we are happy. We seem to have got to the top mark in good shape many times and that has helped."
In the 49ers the Palma title is all but won by the French whilst the new German duo Richard Schultheis and Fabian Riegler are well set for a medal. Consistent leaders in the FX Freya Black ad Saskia Tidey carry a ten points lead into the medal race, whilst in the Nacra 17 the Sofía title is wide open, the Italian pair Gianluigi Ugolini and Maria Giubilei have led the class most of the week but are now only three points ahead.
In iQFOils Grae Morris of Australia and Britain's outstanding Emma Wilson carry the leaders' advantage into the Final as doe Max Maeder of Singapore and China's Wan Li in the Kites.
The first starts are at 1100hrs Saturday.
The 54 Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca by FERGUS Hotels is jointly organised by the Club Nàutic S'Arenal, the Club Marítimo San Antonio de la Playa, the Real Club Náutico de Palma, the Real Federación Española de Vela and the Federación Balear de Vela, with the support of World Sailing, and is co-financed by the Govern de les Illes Balears' Sustainable Tourism Tax fund.
More information at www.trofeoprincesasofia.org.
The event is part of the Sailing Grand Slam 2025, along with the Semaine Olympique Française, the Dutch Water Week, the Kieler Woche and the Long Beach Olympic Classes Regatta.
More information at www.sailinggrandslam.com.