Olympic-bound sailor Micky Beckett is using the Hyeres Regatta as a chance to tune up but admits he cannot forget about the result entirely. 

Solva-born Beckett will head to his first Olympic Games this summer and is spending this week racing just an hour north of where the Olympic sailing will take place in Marseille. 

The 28-year-old heads to the French coast off the back of defending his Trofeo Princess Sofia title for a second time two weeks ago. 

“This is the last big proper event before the Olympics, it is more or less just a systems check,” he said. 

“At the World Cup I did a few weeks ago, I won so obviously that was good, but it doesn’t necessarily mean everything’s perfect.

“This is a really good chance to iron out any wrinkles and check any new ideas I have and just generally take the opportunity to make sure everything I am doing is as good as it should be. 

“I will be working on things around my decision-making and around my ability to make the boat go quickly.  

“There is obviously a lot of fitness involved but there is also a lot of skill and a lot of awareness required and it is making sure all of those things are as good as they should be and that most importantly, I am doing the right thing at the right time.  

“It is all very well having the right skills but if you don’t execute the right one at the right time then it is no good to anybody.” 

Beckett just missed out on a spot at Tokyo 2020 but has developed into one of the world’s strongest ILCA 7 sailors over the last Olympic cycle. 

He won world silver last year, also claiming silver at the Olympic test event, and was one of the first 10 athletes selected to represent Team GB at Paris 2024. 

In Hyeres, Beckett will come up against all the other nations that have already qualified for the Games. 

That means that while his main aim is to iron out any mistakes, he will still have one eye on the result. 

He added: “There are some things we can practice in training when there is a small group of us Brits training together. 

“But when you are in a race environment and you have between 40 and 60 boats in a fleet that creates a much higher risk scenario, so if you make the wrong decision, you are much more likely to end up 40th or 50th in a race. 

“Bad decisions are far more consequential in a race as they are in training so it really is the only chance to practice those big fleet skills, so I’ve really got take advantage. 

“As much as I would like to say the result doesn’t matter, I know myself well enough to know that I am still quite competitive and as soon as we start racing, particularly if I start doing well, I will be looking at the result. 

“Good practice does involve caring about the result. When I am at the Olympics, an event which I really do care about, I will be under the stress of knowing it is very important and something that I care about. 

“So you don’t want to take that away entirely or it is not good practice. I still care, but I also need to stay calm and rational and remember that fundamentally the most important part is learning and improving.”

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