Giles Scott marked his return to Finn sailing as one of two British gold medallists at the Princess Sofia Trophy – and he admitted he could get used to the feeling again.
Scott, who won the Finn world title in 2011 but by that time had already lost out to Ben Ainslie in the race for the London 2012 Olympics, joined Alison Young in claiming victory at the Palma World Cup.
The 25-year-old did enough across the two medal races in Majorca to deny Pieter Jan Postma as he finished third twice while the Dutchman was second and then fifth.
Scott’s British teammates Mark Andrews and Andrew Mills won the first and second medal races respectively to finish in sixth and fifth overall with six medals won in total across the Olympic classes.
And Scott, whose last outing in the class prior to Palma at the Sail for Gold Regatta in June also led to victory, revelled in his winning return to the Finn after time spent America’s Cup sailing.
“It feels good actually. It was quite stressful with the double medal race. We needed to get a decent result in the first race, and then see how the points were,” said Scott.
“And as it was I finished a place behind [Postma] so it came down to who beat who in the final race. We had a little bit of an engagement in the pre-start which was good fun.
“And fortunately I came off the better. He also made it a little bit easier for me half way round when he capsized.”
Young, who finished fifth in the Laser Radial at London 2012, did enough to claim her second ever World Cup win after victory, like Scott, at Sail for Gold last year.
Second in the first medal race and tenth in the second was enough to see her edge out Sarah Gunni of Denmark, who finished fourth and ninth respectively herself.
And, with Young well aware that Gunni was the only one who could strip of the win heading into the final medal race, the Brit was pleased to have got her tactics spot on.
“Going into the last race it was only the Danish girl who could beat me, so coming down the run I was just going to make sure of it, and make sure she couldn’t get boats between us,” said Young.
“I’m pretty pleased to come away with a win – I’ve learned lots of lessons here, it shows all the winter’s training is going in the right direction so I’m looking forward to the rest of the season.”
Two race wins for Flavia Tartaglini saw her overturn Bryony Shaw’s lead in the RS:X women’s event as the Brit settled for adding World Cup silver to her World Championship silver from last month.
Sophie Weguelin and Eilidh McIntyre held on to their second place after the two medal races in the 470 women’s event to claim silver at their first regatta as a new pairing.
Dave Evans and Ed Powys also secured their first World Cup podium finish with bronze in the men’s 49er while Luke Patience and Joe Glanfield completed the medal success in the Olympic classes.
They too claimed bronze in their first event since teaming up in the men’s 470 with Charlotte Dobson and Sophie Ainsworth fifth in the women’s 49erFX.
Lucy Macgregor and Tom Phipps were also fifth in the Nacra 17 multihull event with those two classes new additions to the Olympic programme for the Rio 2016 Games.
© Sportsbeat 2013