Palma de Mallorca, Spain – The final day of Trofeo Princesa Sofia saw a clash between offshore and thermal breezes, difficult conditions for medal races in Laser and Laser Radial fleets.
Heading into the medal race, Great Britain’s Alison Young was sitting in third behind Marit Bouwmeester of the Netherlands. Bouwmeester dropped to second place after suffering a black flag disqualification the day before. Denmark’s Anne-Marie Rindom was leading by 8 points, enough to secure the regatta title.
Rindom cruised into sixth in the Radial medal race to win by 15 points ahead of Great Britain’s 2016 world champion. The Danish world champion of 2015 clinched the Sofia title after nine attempts, twice finishing third. “It is not so much about winning here,” Rindom reported, “just now, it is about good training and making sure I have good technique. I was working a lot on speed through the winter. If you have speed, everything else is easy. Light upwind I have been trying different things and it is coming together.”
Young claimed silver, ahead of twenty-year-old Mária Érdi of Hungary who managed to pass Bouwmeester and sail into third overall.
In a very strong Laser Standard fleet, all eyes were on Australia as Matthew Wearn championed the regatta, ahead of all three Rio medalists.
He went into the medal race with a 19-point lead and left Rio bronze medalist Sam Meech of New Zealand to second, and Rio silver medalist Tonci Stipanovic of Croatia to third. Australia’s Rio Olympic champion Tom Burton was sixth. Three of the Australian Laser sailors finished in the top eight.
“We have had a really solid block of training with our squad back home in the Australian summer, the squad has been working really hard together. Sometimes out there is was better to be lucky than good. We have had a few events at home and then we went to Miami, so we have a really good amount of sailing under our belts.” Wearn, Burton’s long time training partner explained,“The next regatta Tom can come out and do the same thing. That is the way it is in the Laser. It depends on the day. We have a good professional relationship. But we are two guys battling out to be first and second in the world. There are heated moments but we both know we need each other as much as we do. To get the edge on the fleet come 2020, we need to work hard together. We have a strong thing going in Australia. We are always, always pushing. It is that competitive mindset. We all always want to beat each other.”
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