The 31-year-old Olympic champion from Rotherham notched up a convincing win after six days racing in Landskrona, bouncing back from a disappointing opening day where he was disqualified for a premature start in race one, to claim overall victory.

 

The British sailor is now unbeaten on the international circuit since taking gold at the Beijing Olympic Games a year ago, winning his comeback event at the French leg of the ISAF Sailing World Cup in April, before adding further World Cup titles to his belt in Holland and Kiel in May and June prior to his latest European success.

Goodison said: “I was surprised at how early after coming back after my break after the Games that I started getting back to winning again and when you’re sailing well that obviously helps with the confidence."

 

But the defence of his title in Landskrona did not get off to the best of starts.

He said: “I was pretty annoyed after the first day here when I was black flagged in the first race and then dropped from fourth to eighth in the second race.

 

"I gave myself a kick up the backside and refocused and managed to sail pretty well for the rest of the week to get a good lead heading into the last day today.

“I didn’t sail particularly well today I did enough to keep off the Croatian and the Cypriot who were the only ones who could beat me, so I’m pretty chuffed and it’s great to be European Champion again.”

Goodison has a quick turnaround in Britain before heading out to Canada early next week in preparation for the World Championship, where he is hopeful his form will continue.

He said: “Since coming back from the Games, the Worlds has been the one win I’ve really wanted and the whole year has been geared towards preparing for that.

“Although I can’t go there thinking that the title’s mine, I’m pretty happy with the way I’m sailing so there’s no reason not to be confident of doing well there.”

Lymington’s Nick Thompson also scored a top five finished for Britain, while teenager Robert Holmes won the under-19 Laser European title, with fellow youth sailor Alex Mills-Barton second.