Ed Wright believes claiming Finn Gold Cup silver amid light winds in Estonia is a worrying sign for his rivals as the fleet builds towards the next Olympic regatta in Rio in 2016.
Wright made certain of a fourth straight World Championship podium finish by taking third in the medal race, securing silver behind Brazilian Jorge Zarif but ahead of Dutchman Pieter Jan Postma.
World champion from 2010 and runner-up in 2012 Wright, who also claimed European silver last month, battled testing light winds in Tallinn with conditions expected to be very similar at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil.
Wright, who readily admits his strength is in strong winds, has been taking measures to be able to challenge in lighter gales and is now excited at what lies ahead over the next three years.
“This week has been really good for me as I’m mainly known for my strengths in the strong winds, and this week has been really light,” said Wright.
“I’ve lost weight and trimmed down a lot of my equipment for this season to be more competitive in the light winds, which we expect more of in Rio.
“So it’s great that that seems to be paying off and that I’m back showing more of the light wind form that I had when I first came into the class.
“I’m really happy. It’s been a really, really tricky week without much wind, so just keeping focus with all the waiting around has been very important so that you’re ready to race when you do go out there.
“My goal here was a top-three finish and of course you would always prefer to win, but I’m happy with silver after the week we’ve had.”
Of Wright’s fellow Brits, Andrew Mills, who had led the regatta for the first four days, two of which saw no racing due to insufficient wind, sailed in the ten-boat medal race in Tallinn.
However he picked up a yellow flag penalty for illegal boat kinetics in the medal race and dropped to tenth, where he would finish overall, while teammate Mark Andrews placed 27th.
© Sportsbeat 2013