54th Trofeo Princesa Sofia Mallorca by FERGUS - Overall
by Trofeo S.A.R. Princesa Sofía 5 Apr 16:16 UTC
28 March - 5 April 2025
iQFOiL Women Medal Race - 54th Trofeo Princesa Sofia Mallorca by FERGUS © Sailing Energy / Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca
The showcase curtain-raiser to the new Los Angeles 2028 Olympic cycle, Mallorca's famous 54 Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca by FERGUS Hotels started in perfect sunshine and seabreezes last Monday and today came to a fabulous conclusion, enjoying equally sparkling thermal breezes under picture postcard blue skies studded with puffy white clouds.
By their usually high standards Great Britain's sailing team may have had a disappointing Paris 2024 Olympics, landing one gold and one bronze medal, but the Bay of Palma saw their big squad bounce back with an impressive five gold medals from the 10 Olympic events. Led by an emotional victory in the Women's iQFOiL foiling windsurfer class for Emma Wilson, double Olympic bronze medallist who has often dominated but finished disappointed, and ILCA 7 ace Micky Beckett who had won his class for a record fourth time in a row.
Britain's Martin Wrigley and Bettine Harris won the 470 Mixed having tied up the title before today's Medal Race. Tokyo's silver medallists Jon Gimson and Anna Burnet secured the Nacra 17 title for the first time by winning the Medal Race and in the FX Women's Skiff fleet Freya Black and Saskia Tidey clinched their first overall Sofía win. The French reigning world champions Erwan Fischer and Clément Péquin bounced back from their disappointing home Olympics to win the 49er event comfortably.
Whilst Wilson laid to rest the spectres of a numerous last day disappointments, she held on to win the iQFOiL Women whilst Australia's Paris 2024 silver medallist Grae Morris triumphed in the Men's fleet. His Australian Sailing Team compatriot Zoe Thomson went one better than last year. Runner up in 2023 Thomson took second in the medal race to seal the Palma title.
Singapore's Max Maeder was on dominant form in the Men's Formula Kite whilst China's Wan Li won the Women's Kite.
In detail
470 Mixed
A small overnight change to the points calculations due to protests elsewhere meant the British duo Wrigley and Harris went on the water in an unbeatable position, meaning they start their LA 2028 program in the best shape possible. After missing selection narrowly last time they have a great foundation to build in. Germany's Paris 2024 pairing Simon Diesch and Anna Markfort finish runners up with Italy's Elena Berta and Giulio Calabro third,
A delighted Wrigley said, "The conditions have been so nice and varied I love the sailing here, there are so many different conditions here. It means a lot to start our LA2028 campaign off like this. But there are such a good group of sailors in this class."
49er
The French world champions had a largely miserable 2024, failing to fire as they should have at the Games and, prior to that, having had a poor Sofía after arriving as recently crowned world title holders. After regrouping in the winter, taking a hard look at what they need to change to win more medals they have excelled here, adding to their first Sofía title in 2022. Helm Fischer will miss the next two Grand Slam regattas as he is about to become a dad for the first time. Germany's prodigious 19 year old Richard Schultheis sailing with Fabien Reigler took second at their first regatta together whilst Denmark's Frederik Rask and Jakob Precht Jensen land bronze.
Winning crew Péquin said, "We had quite a lot of ups and downs on the last campaign with Erwan and so we are trying to to do things a bit different this time on this project and we are thinking to improve and be more consistent and I think before we were taking too many risks on the race course, so we try to take less risks, especially tactically and we have tried to improve our starts which we have done. Here we tried to take less risks,"
FX Women's Skiff
GBR's Freya Black and Saskia Tidey converted their points lead going into the Medal Race to victory, in so doing also setting their LA 2028 program off to great start. Denmark's Johanne and Andrea Schmidt and Norway's Pia Dahl Andersen and Nora Edland took silver and bronze.
Sharing the wave of high British emotions at Arenal Freya Black smiled, "To be honest this week it has been a little bit our conditions, we kind of like the gusty, offshore conditions. Growing up in the UK we get that a lot sailing when we are growing up. But we came here with confidence to medal and that is exactly what we did. We got back in the boat in January as it is going to be a long season with the Worlds in January, so we made sure we were ready for this event.
There were a range of things we could see we needed to improve on that we debriefed after the Olympics, especially our starting and we just know at the Olympics we did not show what were made of and we feel we have done so here..."
Formula Kite Men
Max Maeder won his third successive Trofeo Princesa Sofia title. The 18-year-old from Singapore is the reigning World Champion and while an Olympic bronze medal at Paris 2024 was a rare slip from his usual dominant form, Maeder has ruled the waves on the Bay of Palma. Already in pole position, Maeder took out the title in the one single race of the four-board final. Italian Riccardo Pianosi fought his way through from the semi-final and finished second across the line of the final, taking the silver medal and displacing Austria's Olympic Champion Valentin Bontus to bronze. Maeder commented: "Another great event in Palma, lots of racing, lots of excitement, not much waiting around, because we nice wind conditions this week. We had such great battles with my competitors this week, so much passion and fire on the race course. I'm exhilarated, very happy to get another win."
Formula Kite Women
For much of the week the Chinese riders have dominated the competition in Formula Kite Women. However the British riders fought back strongly on the final day. Lily Young and Olympic Champion Ellie Aldridge fought their way out of the knock-out rounds into the four-board final. China's Wan Li was in the leader's yellow bib and only required one race win to secure gold. However it was Young who took first blood, winning the first race of the final and also moving to match point alongside Li. But Li refused to yield, winning the second heat in the final and grabbing gold for China. Young and Aldridge respectively took silver and bronze for Great Britain.
ILCA 6 Women
After finishing runner-up for the past two years, Australian Zoe Thomson has finally taken the top spot in Palma. "I had to sail quite clean today, just try to get off the start line in good shape. The wind was a bit shiftier than I anticipated so I took it up the middle and tried to protect my position after that. Winning here, it's a really good start to the Olympic cycle," she said.
Italy's 19-year-old Emma Mativi was ecstatic to fight her way through to the silver medal while Daisy Collingridge took bronze for Great Britain.
ILCA 7 Men
GBR's Micky Beckett 'El Rey de la bahía de Palma' had the Sofía title signed, sealed and delivered yesterday, winning with a day to spare for the third time of his four successive victories, but Tokyo 2020 representative Elliot Hanson sailed well for second whilst Ireland's Finn Lynch made an emphatic statement with a hard earned third place. "I was a bit rusty after a long break after the Olympics, so I honestly wouldn't have backed myself to win this event, but I'm really happy that it's worked out," said the British sailor who was backed to win a medal at Paris 2024. "I was in a bit of a hole after the Games and I told myself, 'I'm really going to have to win Palma. So now I've done it, it's a really nice way to start the cycle.
iQFOiL Women
Emma Wilson's emotional response and obvious joy at winning in the iQFOiL Women's windsurfing was clear to see. So often in the past few years the British rider has led throughout the week only to fall at the final hurdle. Not this time, however. The double Olympic bronze medallist took a well deserved gold ahead of China's Zheng Yan in silver and New Zealand's Veerle Ten Have in bronze. Wilson said: "It's been an amazing week, it's super cool and I haven't won much in my career so I'm really happy to do a good final today. It's a great moment for me to share with everyone who has supported me, and to say thank you to my coaches and my friends and fam.
iQFOiL Men
Australia's Grae Morris was delighted to see out the iQFOiL Men's final in a single race. The Olympic silver medallist from Paris 2024, 21-year-old Morris has led for much of the week and he made the most of an experimental finals format to see off the opposition on the last day. Italy's Nicolo Renna and France's Adrien Mestre took silver and bronze respectively. Morris said: "It's an amazing feeling and hopefully I get to feel this a bit more in the future. I'm grateful for the nice conditions and the fact that we had a good race to showcase to the rest of the world. It's great to be out there on the start line with a great bunch of guys and just happy I came out on top here."
Nacra 17
Going into the Medal Race in third Britain's 2020 silver medallists John Gimson and Anna Burnet celebrated their first big title win since they married after Paris 2024. They read the first leg of the Medal Race best and capitalised going on to take first gun. They too have had a long period away from the boat since missing out on a second Olympic medal in Marseille and admitted they used the regatta to build back their processes and feel. Their regular training partners Italy's Gianluigi Ugolini and Maria Giubilei did what they had to do for second, holding close to China's Huangcheng Zhao and Su Sha who finished third overall.
Burnet said, "We had no results expectations coming here. We had a lot of time off after the Games. We knew we were going to be a bit rusty. We had some process goals we were trying this week and it has been a long regatta so good for that kind of thing." Helm Gimson added, "We got some luck that made us look good. But we were certainly lucky it is our kind of conditions 8 or 9 knots, if we could pick a medal race conditions that would be it. And just the way it panned out we picked the right shift and the others fell away. The numbers worked out."
From Mallorca, the Olympic fleet heads now to Hyeres (France) for the second event of the Sailing Grand Slam 2025, the Semaine Olympique Française (19 to 26 April.)
The 54 Trofeo Princesa Sofía Mallorca by FERGUS Hotels is jointly organised by the Club Nàutic S'Arenal, the Club Marítimo San Antonio de la Playa, the Real Club Náutico de Palma, the Real Federación Española de Vela and the Federación Balear de Vela, with the support of World Sailing, and is co-financed by the Govern de les Illes Balears' Sustainable Tourism Tax fund.
More information at www.trofeoprincesasofia.org
The event is part of the Sailing Grand Slam 2025, along with the Semaine Olympique Française, the Dutch Water Week, the Kieler Woche and the Long Beach Olympic Classes Regatta.
More information at www.sailinggrandslam.com