John Gimson revelled in the test of the Trofeo Princesa Sofia Regatta after he and Nacra 17 partner Anna Burnet claimed bronze in Mallorca.

The duo podiumed on a tough week in the Mediterranean which followed a gruelling training block, securing third after entering the medal race in fourth.

The regatta proved a huge success for Gimson and Burnet’s training group as Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti claimed top spot while fellow Italians Gianluigi Ugolini & Maria Giubilei took silver.

The 41-year-old said: “We’ve always said that if on one of our bad weeks, we can come away with a medal, we know we’re in good shape so we’re super happy to have the medal race we did.

“We said before the start what we were going to do and we went out there and executed a really positive thing when the pressure came on.

“We love racing so it was nice to get back out there and get on and see where we were internationally.

“For our training group to take all three of the podium places, we were happy to see we’d had a productive winter.

“It was slightly different style of racing to normal, racing in one fleet with such a huge group but we’re very happy to come away with a medal at the end of the week.

“We had to do a lot in the medal race which we managed to execute so it was a tough week with a positive ending.”

 

 

Gimson is now looking ahead with confidence to the Nacra 17 World Championships in La Grande Motte, France next month before focus switches to this summer's Olympic Games.

With competition tighter than ever, the Tokyo 2020 silver medallists are using the pair’s most recent regatta as a marker on their quest for gold in Paris.

He said: “It was a huge learning curve and now the details we’re focusing on are getting smaller and smaller, it’s more marginal gains.

“Last year we were trying to qualify the country and ourselves and it was all about executing our time.

“This year we’ve got one race we’re focused on and that’s the Olympics so we’re slowly ramping up ourselves and our equipment as we get closer and closer to the summer.

“The class changed a lot this cycle and different people have had a different look, but now the gains are getting smaller and smaller so the fleet is getting tighter than ever.

“There are probably eight to ten boats in the mix who could medal now.”