Amy Seabright and James Taylor won bronze in the first ever mixed 470 World Championships, while Hannah Mills and Eilidh McIntyre narrowly missed out on a podium spot following an epic comeback in the women’s fleet.
Amy and James notched up five top-five finishes on their way to securing their podium spot in the new 470 class format for the Paris 2024 Olympics. At the midway point they even led the regatta in Vilamoura, Portugal, but were overtaken by eventual winners Gil Cohen and Noam Homri from Israel.
2019 world champions Hannah Mills and Eilidh McIntyre (pictured) had a tough start to their title defence, finding themselves in the bottom half of the 27-boat fleet at the midway stage of the six-day regatta.
However, the pair proved their class with a comeback that saw them jump to fourth on the back of a string of top five results including three wins on the bounce on the penultimate day. With bronze within their reach, the pair looked like they would complete their comeback as they approached the finish line of the medal race in second place. Disaster then struck when they were penalised by the on-water umpires, then punished further for not completing a penalty spin, relegating them to seventh across the line and fifth overall.
In the men’s fleet Team GB sailors Luke Patience and Chris Grube came back from a tricky start to finish strongly with a strong of top five finishes, claiming 13th overall. Teammates Martin Wrigley and Alex Hughes were 19th.
The RS:X European Championships, also held in Vilamoura over the same dates, saw Britain’s Emma Wilson finish fifth overall, just three points off the podium, while in the men’s fleet Tom Squires came home 21st.
