Hannah Sails Away With Gold In Spain As She Sets Her Mast Towards Tokyo

Hannah Mills hailed a special victory as Wales’ Olympic champ got her Tokyo 2020 preparations off to a perfect start in Majorca.

The Cardiff-born sailor triumphed at the Princess Sofia Trophy regatta in Palma in the women’s 470 with Eilidh McIntyre.

The duo’s gold was one of eight medals GB secured on the final day including bronze in the men’s 470 class for Bala’s Chris Grube with Luke Patience.

“We’ll take so much from the week and to come away with a win, we’re so happy,” said Mills.

“It’s really special to win this weekend as I’ve never won in Palma before and I come every year and love it.

“It’s always really challenging and we always get such a variety of conditions.

“It’s huge. This event was part of our Olympic trials and so to perform here under pressure was great.

“It was a real good test for me and Eilidh to see where we’re at when that pressure comes on and how we respond to it.”

Mills linked up with her new partner after Saskia Clark retired followig their Rio 2016 gold medal success.

The pair sealed gold in Spain with a win in the medal race in difficult conditions andonlt finished outside the top five twice in 11 races over the week.

“It’s been an amazing week. It’s been a really long week, we’ve had all sorts of conditions and the racing has been super-tough,” added Mills.

“We had a really big fleet here all on one start line so every race you had to put your best foot forward and get a result.

“It was about consistency and we managed to do that.”

Chester-born Grube was also pleased to end a tough week of sailing with a medal.

The 34-year-old said: “The medal race was a little messy for us but we’re so pleased with how we’ve sailed this week.

“We had a tricky year last year so to come to this event and pretty much nail it has been great.”