Palma 49er gold for Peters-Sterritt<\/p>\n
Written by RYA | 01 April 2017<\/p>\n
Five medals for the British Sailing Team as Princess Sofia comes to a close<\/p>\n
Podium Potential 49er talents James Peters and Fynn Sterritt secured their first senior international regatta victory as the Princess Sofia Trophy drew to close in Palma on Saturday (1 April).<\/p>\n
Silver for Elliot Hanson and Nacra 17 duo John Gimson-Anna Burnett, along with bronze medals for Nick Thompson and Dylan Fletcher-Stuart Bithell, made it five medals for the British Sailing Team at the conclusion of the six-day event.<\/p>\n
In the 49er Peters and Sterritt went into the medal race day one point ahead of their nearest rivals, Diego Botin-Iago Lopez. But with four boats still capable of winning the event in the final three races it looked like it was going to be a challenging day.<\/p>\n
With the wind building as the morning went on, the 49er sailors were scheduled to start second on their medal race course. However racing was subsequently cancelled for the men\u2019s skiff meaning Peters-Sterritt remained at the top of leaderboard after a consistently strong performance all week.<\/p>\n
After finding out racing had be cancelled and the gold medal was secured, a thrilled Peters said: \u201cIt feels great to have won, we\u2019ve been putting in some good results for a while but we hadn\u2019t got ourselves in to the top three at a major regatta before, so to win this week is awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was feeling a little bit nervous coming in to this morning, but we\u2019ve been training hard over the winter,\u201d added Sterritt who, along with Peters, has trained in Cadiz squad camps in similar conditions to today\u2019s breeze.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m confident we would have been able to get around the course,\u201d continued Sterritt. \u201cIt\u2019s a shame we didn\u2019t get any racing in today but I think it was the right decision from the race committee.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Fletcher-Bithell also on the podium picking up the bronze medal, Peters commented on the strong British 49er squad: \u201cThe strength of Dylan and Stu as well as the younger guys in the team gives us a massive opportunity to use each other and push each other. It\u2019s a real strength for us as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 49er duo will now look forward to their next event, World Cup Hyeres, later in the month where they hope to continue their Palma form.<\/p>\n
Hanson narrowly missed out his on first senior international championship gold in the tough double-point medal race. The 23-year-old took the lead heading into the medal race after a strong day on Friday and a consistent series all week. With three bullets in the opening series, Hanson started today guaranteed the gold or silver medal.<\/p>\n
The Macclesfield sailor had a difficult start finishing the final race in 10th, while Italian Francesco Marrai took sixth to take the gold medal by one point.<\/p>\n
Coming off the water following on the race, Hanson expressed his disappointed: \u201cThe medal race didn\u2019t go to plan in the end. I had control of Marrai pre-start, but with a right shift on the start line I got stuck on the outside of the committee boat and there wasn\u2019t enough time to reposition.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith no way of getting back in position I was about 10 seconds late on to the race course. There was only one left shift on that beat and I was furthest right, so in the end not a good day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reflecting on what has been a strong event overall, Hanson concluded: \u201cIt\u2019s been a good week and I\u2019m looking forward to the rest of the season ahead\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sharing Hanson\u2019s disappointed was teammate and Rio Olympian Nick Thompson: \u201cI feel a bit bad for Elliot, he\u2019s sailed an awesome regatta and I think he deserved to win, but it\u2019s good to see things are moving in the right direction for the whole of the British team.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe wind picked up pretty quickly out there. We started today with light winds and a postponement, but it was forecast to build and we ended up having about 20 knots out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wishing there were more races in the final day breeze, Thompson described the conditions as \u2018fantastic\u2019 for the last race of the regatta.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a good medal race and managed to take the win. It was always going to be difficult from where I was to jump up the leaderboard but I did everything I could.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite taking the final bullet, with Marrai and Hanson too many points ahead, Thompson was unable to upgrade his overnight third place position and settled for the bronze medal.<\/p>\n
Whilst Thompson was clear from the outset that for him this event was never about the end result, he was pleased that despite approaching the regatta in a new way, he still secured a step on the podium.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a rewarding week and to get a medal is a bit of icing on the cake,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
After a challenging final two days, Nacra duo Gimson-Burnett went into the day in second position. The pair had already guaranteed themselves a medal, with the double-point medal race also providing the opportunity to challenge for gold.<\/p>\n
With the Nacra 17 event also hampered by the weather, the duo took home the silver as the breeze showed no signs of tiring as racing was eventually abandoned. Fellow British Nacra boat Tom Phipps-Nikki Boniface finished in the event in fourth.<\/p>\n
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