POOLE gold medal hopeful Lucy Macgregor is confident her team’s hectic training regime is standing them in good stead for the Olympics.

Macgregor, sister Kate Macgregor and Annie Lush are preparing to represent the host nation in Match Race sailing at this summer’s Games.

The Dorset triumvirate continued their busy build-up programme by registering a sixth-place finish at the Princess Sofia World Cup Regatta in Palma last week.

Following an impressive set of results during qualifying, the Team GB stars saw their medal hopes ended by France’s former world champion Claire Leroy in the quarter-finals. The Daily Echo columnists then lost out to Russia’s Ekaterina Skudina in a fifth-sixth play-off.

But their main goal is to work towards maximising their performance for the Olympics and Macgregor believes they are on course following a series of training trips to Spain during recent months.

She told the Daily Echo: “Overall, we were quite pleased with how we sailed at the event in Palma.

“The final result was not what we would have hoped for but certainly in the early rounds, we were sailing pretty well and there were a lot of things that we could see we had improved on a lot.

“It is always a bit of a relief, after going away and training for a couple of months, to come back and actually perform in some of the areas you have been working on. It was a nice feeling.

“Come the quarter-finals, it was disappointing. On the day, the French sailed a lot better than us.”

Macgregor felt that her team’s focus on performances – rather than results – ahead of the Games was mirrored by a number of the other British displays at the regatta.

She said: “I don’t think it was our best event as a team but there were a lot of really promising signs with people coming through late and performing really well.

“We are certainly all focused on the A-game, which is the Olympics. Everything in between is just training.”

Macgregor recently sustained a cut head during an accident at the team’s Spanish base in Cadiz.

But she is now fully recovered. Macgregor added: “The actual injury to my head was more of a cut than a big bang to the head.”

• To follow the progress of the Match Race Girls, read their exclusive column every Saturday in the Daily Echo’s Going for Gold section.