Australia’s Matt Wearn dominated the final Medal Race to take a second consecutive ILCA 7 World title.
The reigning Olympic Champion dominated the latter races, finishing with a ten point advantage, and confirming – if there was any doubt – that he will be the man to beat in the upcoming Paris Olympics starting in late July.
It also signalled his complete recovery from a bout of Long Covid which wiped out his 2022 season and upset his early Olympic preperations.
Wearn led from start to finish in the medal race, with Norway’s Hermann Tomasgaard finishing second to confirm Silver and Britain’s Micky Beckett finishing fifth to claim Bronze.
Beckett’s bronze, is added to his fourth place finish in the Australian Nationals, also won by Wearn, and he will return the British team base at Weymouth, to work on just what it takes to beat Wearn.
“Matt has clearly set the benchmark for what needs to be done to win,” said Beckett. “He sails in a consistently good way and often, not far off perfection.”
“But I know I can beat him, particularly in the kind of conditions we’re going to get in the Mediterranean. There’s a bit of work to do to get there but it’s motivating to have him setting such a high benchmark.”
Seven Olympic qualification places were up for grabs: Guatemala, Montenegro, Chile, Denmark, India, Turkey and Sweden took the country spots to join the ILCA 7 event in Paris 2024.
The international ILCA 7 fleet will now move to Europe to prepare for the Paris Olympics, with the next major event the Princess Sofia Palma regatta starting 30 March.
ILCA 7 2024 Mens Worlds – Final Overall after Gold Medal Race
Other GBR competitors:
18th Sam Whaley
45th Dan Whiteley
60th James Percival-Cooke
72nd Finley Dickinson
