Bettine Harris and Martin Wrigley have won the British Elite Athletes Association’s Athletes’ (BEAA) Athlete of the Month award for March.
The British Sailing duo, who compete in the 470 class, topped a vote amongst their fellow World Class Programme athletes following their victory at the European Championships.
“It’s a pretty cool feeling,” said Bettine.
“It was the first event of the season for us and the first time we have been back racing as a 470 class for a long time. We had a slightly difficult end to last year, but had a good winter block after that and felt like we were ready, so it was nice to perform.”
The victory in Vilamoura was Bettine and Martin’s first at a major championship and was particularly impressive as it came off the back of a winter period disrupted by injury.
The pair had limited time on the water as Bettine recovered from a broken arm, but are now eyeing more medals following their successful start to the season.
“It’s quite significant [European gold],” Martin explained.
“Last season we had a really good season. We won two grand slam events, one of them being the Princess Sofia Regatta, which is a really prestigious event, but it’s not a major championship, so to finally get on the top step at a major championship was cool.
“It has put us in a good place to try and win the World Championships this season.
“We can look at the stats from previous Olympics and quite often a consistent medallist throughout the cycle is normally a medallist at the Olympics. That’s all we’re trying to do, keep chipping away and line ourselves up to hopefully get a medal in LA.”
The Athletes’ Athlete of the Month award is presented by the BEAA on behalf of its members – elite British sportspeople who receive funding from UK Sport’s World Class Programme.
Bettine and Martin were up against Georgia Hunter Bell (athletics), Neil Simpson and Rob Poth (para-alpine) and Mark Swan (para-powerlifting), all of whom medalled at major championships in March.
Reflecting on their success, the teammates were in agreement that the acknowledgement of their fellow elite athletes makes the award particularly meaningful.
“It’s nice to know a lot of our teammates have recognised the European’s win,” said Bettine, while Martin added: “I am quite surprised and honoured to be given this award by our peers. They are the people whose opinion we respect the most because they are going through the same thing.”
