Great Britain tops medal table as 54 Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca by FERGUS Hotels enjoys fabulous finale

Led by an emotional victory in the Women’s iQFOiL foiling windsurfer class for Emma Wilson, double Olympic bronze medallist who has often dominated but finished disappointed, and ILCA 7 ace Micky Beckett who had won his class for a record fourth time in a row, Great Britain claimed an impressive five gold medals from the 10 Olympic events

Britain’s Martin Wrigley and Bettine Harris won the 470 Mixed having tied up the title before today’s Medal Race. Germany’s Paris 2024 pairing Simon Diesch and Anna Markfort finish runners up with Italy’s Elena Berta and Giulio Calabro third.

A delighted Wrigley said, “The conditions have been so nice and varied I love the sailing here, there are so many different conditions here. It means a lot to start our LA2028 campaign off like this. But there are such a good group of sailors in this class.”

The French reigning world champions Erwan Fischer and Clément Péquin bounced back from their disappointing home Olympics to win the 49er event comfortably. Germany’s prodigious 19-year-old Richard Schultheis sailing with Fabien Riegler took second at their first regatta together whilst Denmark’s Frederik Rask and Jakob Precht Jensen land bronze.

Winning crew Péquin said, “We had quite a lot of ups and downs on the last campaign with Erwan and so we are trying to do things a bit different this time on this project and we are thinking to improve and be more consistent and I think before we were taking too many risks on the race course, so we try to take less risks, especially tactically and we have tried to improve our starts which we have done. Here we tried to take less risks.”

GBR’s Freya Black and Saskia Tidey converted their points lead going into the 49erFX Medal Race to victory, in so doing also setting their LA 2028 program off to great start. Denmark’s Johanne and Andrea Schmidt and Norway’s Pia Dahl Andersen and Nora Edland took silver and bronze.

Emma Wilson laid to rest the spectres of a numerous last day disappointments, she held on to win the iQFOiL Women whilst Australia’s Paris 2024 silver medallist Grae Morris triumphed in the Men’s fleet.

Wilson’s emotional response and obvious joy at winning in the iQFOiL Women’s windsurfing was clear to see. The double Olympic bronze medallist took a well-deserved gold ahead of China’s Zheng Yan in silver and New Zealand’s Veerle Ten Have in bronze.

Wilson said: “It’s been an amazing week, it’s super cool and I haven’t won much in my career so I’m really happy to do a good final today. It’s a great moment for me to share with everyone who has supported me, and to say thank you to my coaches and my friends and fam.”

Australia’s Grae Morris was delighted to see out the iQFOiL Men’s final in a single race. The Olympic silver medallist from Paris 2024, 21-year-old Morris has led for much of the week, and he made the most of an experimental finals format to see off the opposition on the last day. Italy’s Nicolo Renna and France’s Adrien Mestre took silver and bronze respectively.

Morris said: “It’s an amazing feeling and hopefully I get to feel this a bit more in the future. I’m grateful for the nice conditions and the fact that we had a good race to showcase to the rest of the world. It’s great to be out there on the start line with a great bunch of guys and just happy I came out on top here.”

Singapore’s Max Maeder was on dominant form in the Men’s Formula Kite, winning his third successive Trofeo Princesa Sofia title.

Already in pole position, Maeder took out the title in the one single race of the four-board final. Italian Riccardo Pianosi fought his way through from the semi-final and finished second across the line of the final, taking the silver medal and displacing Austria’s Olympic Champion Valentin Bontus to bronze.

Maeder commented: “Another great event in Palma, lots of racing, lots of excitement, not much waiting around, because we had nice wind conditions this week. We had such great battles with my competitors this week, so much passion and fire on the race course. I’m exhilarated, very happy to get another win.”

For much of the week the Chinese riders have dominated the competition in Formula Kite Women. However, the British riders fought back strongly on the final day. Lily Young and Olympic Champion Ellie Aldridge fought their way out of the knock-out rounds into the four-board final. China’s Wan Li was in the leader’s yellow bib and only required one race win to secure gold. It was Young who took first blood, winning the first race of the final and also moving to match point alongside Li. But Li refused to yield, winning the second heat in the final and grabbing gold for China. Young and Aldridge respectively took silver and bronze for Great Britain.

After finishing runner-up for the past two years, Australian Zoe Thomson has finally taken the top spot in Palma. “I had to sail quite clean today, just try to get off the start line in good shape. The wind was a bit shiftier than I anticipated so I took it up the middle and tried to protect my position after that. Winning here, it’s a really good start to the Olympic cycle,” she said.

Italy’s 19-year-old Emma Mativi was ecstatic to fight her way through to the silver medal while Daisy Collingridge took bronze for Great Britain.

Going into the Nacra 17 Medal Race in third Britain’s 2020 silver medallists John Gimson and Anna Burnet celebrated their first big title win since they married after Paris 2024. They read the first leg of the Medal Race best and capitalised going on to take first gun. They too have had a long period away from the boat since missing out on a second Olympic medal in Marseille and admitted they used the regatta to build back their processes and feel. Their regular training partners Italy’s Gianluigi Ugolini and Maria Giubilei did what they had to do for second, holding close to China’s Huangcheng Zhao and Su Sha who finished third overall.

From Mallorca, the Olympic fleet heads now to Hyeres (France) for the second event of the Sailing Grand Slam 2025, the Semaine Olympique Française (19-26 April)

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