Rachael Betchart added to her growing reputation in the sailing world by winning the Waszp EuroCup Regatta in France last week.

Betschart was crowned overall winner, beating the boys, after going one better than when second in a regatta in Italy in September.

After that event in Imperia, Betschart said she had learnt plenty in defeat and she dominated in Bandol, in the South of France, winning five of the six races and finishing well clear of her nearest rival, local challenger Antoine Madic.

“At the last event I had a lot of struggles on the second day,” Betschart said.

“It was quite wavy and it wasn’t super windy, but there was a decent breeze and just handling the waves downwind was quite tricky. This event, that was my main goal, to improve on that specific aspect, which I did.

“The conditions were quite difficult. We were sailing in a bay and it was quite a strong breeze, over 25 knots at some point. The way the race course was laid out, the bottom half was really windy and wavy, and then the top half was really gusty and flat.

“So you had a whole bunch of different conditions to deal with, which was really interesting just from a sailing perspective. I was really focusing on decision making during the race, it came down to split-second decision making, and it was a great event for that sort of skill.”

Betschart is a regular winner of Waszp events but she is level-headed and never gets too carried away by success.

“One of my big inspirations is Eileen Gu, an Olympic freestyle skier and her mentality when it comes to sport is quite impressive,” Betschart said

“She has this saying ‘race like you’ve never lost and train like you’ve never won’. When I heard an interview of her saying that, I immediately thought of how brilliant that mindset was. It’s just basically putting your all into a race.

“In my event there are multiple races in a regatta and you have to make sure that if you have one race that doesn’t go your way, you don’t let it affect the next one. That means a lot of compartmentalising, which is definitely a big part of the game.”

The win in France capped another fantastic year for Betschart as she combines racing with studying for an mechanical engineering degree at Exeter University.

“Competitions-wise, this is me done for the year and is a really nice way to finish the season off.”