Bermudian sailors Adriana Penruddocke and Sebastian Kempe navigated tough conditions yesterday to qualify for the gold fleet at the 54th Princess Sofia Trophy in Mallorca, Spain.

At an event marking the new Olympic cycle for the International Laser Class Association, both sailors achieved top-ten finishes, with Kempe fifth in the ILCA 7 while Penruddocke managed seventh in ILCA 6 during the two-day qualifiers.

Kempe, who was racing internationally for the first time since the World Cup last June, is anticipating a ferocious battle from today until Friday.

The regatta concludes on Saturday with medal races for sailors in the top ten overall, which the Bermudian pair will be pushing to achieve.

“I’m now in the gold fleet, where I’ll be competing against sailors of the highest calibre, so it’s going to be a dogfight,” the 19-year-old told The Royal Gazette.

“My scorecard isn’t displaying what I want it to or believe it should be. However, there are promising signs in my sailing right now, so with patience and persistence, something special could come in the future.

“We’ve encountered tricky conditions so far in this event and we have even trickier conditions to come. I’m keeping my head down and getting ready for a long week ahead.”

On his chances of competing for a medal on the final day, Kempe indicated that he was willing to remain patient until his turn came.

“It’s always the goal and I’ll take it one step at a time,” he added.

“If all goes well I can’t wait for that to happen, but one start at a time and one leg at a time is my approach.”

Penruddocke described yesterday as a tough day on the water, with the 24-year-old determined to improve her performance in the remaining days.

“It was a challenging second day, but I’ve reset and I am fully focused on giving my all in the gold fleet for the next three days” the Olympian said.

“This is my third race of the year. I did the Midwinters East in February. And at the beginning of March, I did the UK National Open 1.

“Both of these were warm-up events for this spring, starting with his event, followed by the French Olympic Week and then the world championships in May.”

Shaun Priestley, their coach, has challenged Kempe and Penruddocke to start being consistent on the gold fleet, with focus beyond qualification.

“Both sailors are managing difficult and changeable conditions well at the highest level,” he said.

“The qualification stage is over with both sailors in the gold fleet. We are looking forward to pushing hard for the regatta finals starting on Wednesday.

“Adriana is placed 28th overall of 115, which if I’m to be honest is super good on the Olympic circuit.

“Sebastian is 34th of 174, so those are good places, obviously they’re not winning but the level is really high.

“They’re still both quite young competitors in the field, and they’re starting the journey to 2028.

“We really want to see good performances in the gold fleet. In the last cycle, if they made the gold fleet, we were super happy, but now we really want to see them feel more comfortable and start to perform at the elite-level sailors.

“We’re in a heavy regatta season now until June. We have three championships before the world championships in May,” Priestley added.