Axbridge sailor Bettine Harris said she is delighted to have helped Great Britain finish as the top nation at the 470 World Championships in Palma de Mallorca.

The 21-year-old and sailing partner Martin Wrigley finished ninth after Sunday's medal race was called off due to high winds, while Chris Grube and Vita Heathcote finished second overall in Spain to lock up a quota place for Team GB at this summer’s Olympics.

As the most successful nation in the Championships with two boats in the top 10, Great Britain won the First Nations trophy.

Harris said: "I'm super happy that between us we managed to qualify a boat for Team GB. It's a difficult one because we didn't get race on the last day. 

"We were kind of in a really good position to actually gain quite a lot of places in the medal race, but it was too stormy and we couldn't go out, which is gutting to be honest. 

"I'm still super pleased with where we came and massively impressed with Vita’s performance as well.

"We won the First Nations trophy, which is a huge achievement. We've improved so much over the last year or so from the last Worlds. It's cool that we got that."

Harris is a relative newcomer to 470 sailing after taking it up in 2022. She is partnered with the vastly experienced Martin Wrigley, who competed for Team GB at the delayed 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, following the retirement of Eilidh McIntyre last year.

Since beginning their partnership, Harris and Wrigley have seen continuing improvements on the water together.

Placing 15th at last year's World Championships in The Netherlands, the duo continued their development with a sixth-place finish at the RYA Olympic Classes National Series last October.

This consistent progression gives Harris cause for optimism about what the future could hold as competition hots up to be a part of the crew in France this summer.

Harris said: "We just hit over a year of sailing together. For myself it’s only my second year of 470 sailing, it's really exciting that we can achieve this so early on.

"If anything, it's made us more excited for the future and what we can do over the next year. 

"Because of the amount that we've managed to improve since the last Worlds, if we just keep that going, then hopefully we can keep on climbing up the leaderboards a bit more."

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