That sailor is Micky Beckett. The 30-year-old Welshman clinched his fourth consecutive title in the ILCA 7 fleet on Friday, sealing the championship with a race to spare—an achievement that places him ahead of 2008 Olympic gold medallist Paul Goodison, who won three times here.
“Winning for a fourth time here is actually much, much more important to me than I was saying at the start of the week,” Beckett said, grinning with relief after a long, slow day that kept ILCA racers on the water for more than eight hours.
“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,” he said. “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 it, particularly before the medal race, is awesome.”
Beckett’s win comes in a fleet of 176 sailors that included both the Paris 2024 silver and bronze medallists, Pavlos Kontides of Cyprus and Stefano Peschiera of Peru. Finn Lynch of Ireland will go into Saturday’s medal race in second, followed by Italy’s Lorenzo Chiavarini in third.
ILCA 6 Wide Open, 470 British Team on the Brink
The women’s ILCA 6 event remains undecided. Zoe Thomson of Australia, runner-up here in 2023, holds a narrow three-point lead over Britain’s Daisy Collingridge. Hungary’s Maria Erdí, who led midweek, withdrew from the event citing recovery from a back injury that affected her Olympic campaign. She is expected to contend at the upcoming World Championships in Qingdao.
In the Mixed 470, Britain’s Martin Wrigley and Bettina Harris lead by 18 points and are poised for their biggest joint win yet. For Wrigley, the moment carries added weight after several near-misses in past Olympic campaigns.
“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,” he said. “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 ask 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.”
Medal Favourites Across the Fleets
France’s Erwan Fischer and Clément Péquin, 49er world champions, enter the medal race with a 21-point lead. The new German duo of Richard Schultheis and Fabian Rieger are well-positioned for a podium finish. In the 49erFX, Britain’s Freya Black and Saskia Tidey lead by 10 points, while the Nacra 17 remains up for grabs. Italy’s Gianluigi Ugolini and Maria Giubilei, front-runners for much of the week, are now just three points ahead.
In the iQFOiL and Formula Kite fleets, event leaders include Emma Wilson of Britain, Grae Morris of Australia, Max Maeder of Singapore, and Wan Li of China.
The first medal race begins Saturday at 1100 local time. For some, it will mark the start of a campaign. For Beckett, the hard work is already done.
