Martin Wrigley hoping new found stability can propel him to Paris

By James Reid

Martin Wrigley hopes his newfound stability can propel him to this summer’s Olympics in Paris.

The 27-year-old has endured a rocky time since Tokyo, with initial mixed 470 partner Eilidh McIntyre announcing her retirement last year.

Hereford’s Wrigley hastily formed a new partnership with Bettine Harris, 21, and after a testing maiden year the pair are ready to test themselves against the very best at the 470 World Championships in Palma de Mallorca, with the potential prize of an Olympic quota spot also on offer.

Wrigley said: “It has been a lot of chop and change for me for quite a few years now so to be able to settle down with Bee and form a really nice partnership has been nice.

“We are looking at a full four-year cycle and it is exciting to see what we can do.

“It feels like we are really starting to gel. Last year was a really difficult year as we had no time to prepare. We were really playing catch-up.

“The nice thing about our partnership is that we see there is a lot more to come. I’m really excited to see what we can do in the next cycle to put us in a good spot for the next Olympics.

“It has been a really interesting year. It has been difficult but quite enjoyable. For the first time, I’ve had to figure things out for myself and not been around people like Luke Patience and Chris Grube like I was last cycle.

“It’s a really nice position to be in. We are going to work as hard as we can to get as good as we can as quickly as possible.

“There is a lot more to come from us. We’ve got a long journey ahead but we are in a good position.”

The pair’s journey makes its next big stop in the Balearics, with the World Championships taking place between February 24 and March 3.

The prospect of Olympic qualification, with one European quota spot up for grabs, is impossible to ignore and while Wrigley knows it will be a tough task, it is one the pair are more than willing to try and tackle.

“It’s quite a weird time because our last event was the World Championships and we are going into our first event of the season and it is the World Championships again,” he added.

“That’s a little strange because it’s an Olympic year.

“We are still quite a new team, we only teamed up at the start of February last year, so we are ever-evolving and our expectations are always changing.

“We are just trying to keep chipping away and it would be really nice if we can qualify the nation for this event and guarantee our spot at the Olympics.

“But because we are so new here, we are just still trying to see where we can get to.

“It [Olympic qualification] is always going to be there in the back of our minds but we just have to do the best that we can and see what happens.”

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