Beckett banishes World Championship demons with Princess Sofia 'three-peat'

By Paul Eddison, Sportsbeat

MICKY Beckett had a horrible feeling of déjà-vu in Palma but banished his World Championship demons by making it a hat-trick of World Cup wins.

At the Trofeo Princesa Sofia Regatta in Mallorca, Beckett was going for a third straight title in the ILCA 7 class.

And while he dominated proceedings all week, a disqualification in the seventh race meant that he was still vulnerable.

It had been a similar scenario at least year’s World Championships when Beckett led the way, only for a disqualification to open the door for main rival Matt Wearn – the Australian using sailing’s idiosyncrasies to block Beckett at the back of the fleet and leapfrog the Brit to take the title.

This time around though, there was no such drama, much to Beckett’s relief.

He said: “I was getting a bit of déjà-vu from the World Championships last year. It was a similar race that I got the black flag (disqualification) which came back to be a huge problem last year.

“Going into the final race of the event, it crossed my mind that it was a similar scenario. So it was very satisfying that I was able to the last race and sail at the front of the fleet, with no drama and stay out of trouble.

“When I crossed the finish line, it all felt calm and under control, it was a good sense of achievement.”

Wearn and Beckett have been the top two in the class in the build-up to the Olympics, with the Australian winning both last year’s Olympic Test Event and the Worlds.

But having made it three in a row at the World Cup event in Palma, Beckett is confident that his training is paying dividends.

He added: “I’m very happy indeed. It’s vindication really. Sailing, and all sport, is a lot of small decisions and doing them as well as possible.

“You don’t always know at the time if it’s the right things to work on, but it shows that things are going in the right direction.

“Sailing is gambling and managing risk while you are racing around. My decision-making and risk management was pretty good.

“I think that allowed me to win the event by quite a large margin while everyone else was struggling with higher scores. That has been something my coach and I have been working on and we’ve improved.”

Beckett will now head to Hyères in the south of France for French Olympic Week, looking to build on this showing as he tries to peak for the Games, which will be hosted in nearby Marseille this summer.

“It leaves me in a good place,” he said.

“There is still plenty of work to do and managing form is probably the most important thing of any athlete’s job.

“There is no point being the best in the world unless you are the best in the world when it counts.

“I need to manage my fitness and make sure I take some rest when I need it and slowly build into the summer and try to keep everything under control to pace myself.”

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