Alison Young insists she is taking great confidence from claiming bronze at the Laser Radial European Championships as her fine season to date continued in Ireland.
The 26-year-old, who finished fifth at the London 2012 Olympics last summer, placed outside the top ten just once in the 12-race regatta and outside the top five just three times.
That allowed Young to finish in third place with 40 points five shy of Marit Bouwmeester in second but way off Annalise Murphy who took gold on home waters with just 13.
For Young a maiden European Championship medal adds to a maiden World Cup win in Palma in March to go with another bronze in the series at the next regatta in Hyeres.
Add to that EUROSAF Champions Sailing Cup bronze in the Netherlands and fifth at the Sail for Gold regatta and Young is in upbeat mood ahead of the upcoming World Championships in China.
“I’ve never won a Europeans medals before so for me this is a great confidence boost and it’s great that the work we’ve been doing this season is continuing to pay off,” said Young.
“It’s good build up for the World Championships in China next month. Annalise had a cracking week – obviously a good bit of local knowledge there.
“So really well done to her for her title. The usual suspects were fighting it out at the top of the fleet so we had some great racing this week.
“It was pretty shifty every day, which definitely made it a tricky event but also meant there were lots of opportunities to keep coming back during the races.
“The wind was coming out of the north on the final day which it hadn’t been all week, so that kept things interesting.”
Young’s training partner Hannah Snellgrove was ninth in the European fleet and Chloe Martin 20th while in the Laser Standard Nick Thompson narrowly missed out on a medal.
The two-time world silver medallist started the final day in pole position but was to finish fourth in the European fleet just five points from gold.
Thompson was joined on the water by fellow Brits Alex Mills Barton and Martin Evans, who placed ninth and 11th respectively in the European fleet.
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Photo Richard Langdon/Ocean Images