GOLD FOR PATIENCE AND WILLIS
British duo Luke Patience and Elliot Willis have secured gold in the 470 European Championships in Athens with a day of competition remaining.
Patience and Willis only came together as a team five in February but finished second in races nine and 10 on Monday to assure themselves of the European title.
The double-points medal race on Tuesday could see the British Sailing Team pairing pass Australia's World Champions Mat Belcher and Will Ryan to complete overall event victory but Patience is happy to already have the gold medal in the bag.
"We've come here and executed everything we meant to and had an amazing regatta so far," he said. "There's still a race to go tomorrow and an Australian boat to put some heat on to and try and beat.
"We've been on fire speed-wise, we've been really accurate with our strategy on the course and more than anything, we've executed it exactly as we've wanted to."
There was also success for the women's pairing of Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark, with the Olympic silver medallists guaranteeing themselves at least a silver.
They will go into Tuesday's final medal race 11 points adrift of Austria's Lara Vadlau and Jolanta Ogar as they attempt to match the achievement of their male counterparts.
