British Sailing Team member Michael Beckett has scored his best ever performance at senior level, winning the silver medal at a breezy Laser European Championships in La Rochelle.

Beckett, 23, from Solva in Pembrokeshire, put on an impressive show of consistency over the six-day regatta, only finishing outside of the top ten three times in 11 races.

The promising sailor ended up just one point behind regatta winner Pavlos Kontides of Cyprus and three ahead of third-placed Jesper Stalheim from Sweden.

“I’m so exhausted from the last few days racing that this really hasn’t sunk in,” Beckett said. “I have a silver medal, my first ever senior medal, from the Europeans and I can’t believe it.

“While it’s the result I’ve been training for years for, I just couldn’t picture it actually happening. I knew all week I had some good pace, I wasn’t necessarily the best in the fleet so I was just trying to stay consistent and it really paid off on the last day when the leaders started to struggle.”

Beckett said his European success has given him a timely boost ahead of the Sailing World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark, in August.
“This is a massive lift for my confidence so once I’ve had time to rest I’ll be looking closely at what else I can achieve this year,” he added.