Britain’s sailors scored a golden hat-trick on finals day at the French Olympic Sailing Week in Hyeres, with Bryony Shaw, Paul Brotherton and Mark Asquith, and Paul Goodison all sealing victory on Friday (30 April).

Skandia Team GBR had a strong finish to this fourth leg of the ISAF Sailing World Cup series, picking up five medals from the regatta as Laser Radial sailor Charlotte Dobson and 2.4mR Paralympic sailor Megan Pascoe also added silver and bronze to the British tally.

The final races were once again delayed by the light wind conditions which have prevailed throughout the week.  Shaw’s medal race was abandoned, handing her overall victory and her second straight World Cup podium finish by 18 points over Spain’s Blanca Manchon.

“It was a shame not to get out and do the medal race, but I’m really happy with the racing this week.  It’s been really light winds, so hard work, but I’m dominating in the light winds and have had really consistent results this week so I’m really happy.

“I had the yellow jersey after day one so it was nice to keep that all week.  I wasn’t necessarily expecting it but our training’s been going really well.  It shows that all that is moving in the right direction.”

“After such a testing week, it’s really fantastic to be leaving Hyeres with five medals,” said RYA Olympic Manager Stephen Park.

“I’m really pleased for Bryony and Paul and Mark, who’ve been strong in these tricky conditions all week, and Paul Goodison as well, who’s shown he’s still the man to beat in the Laser class.

Park continued: “A silver for Charlotte in the Laser Radial event is really well-deserved given all the hard work I know she’s put in during the winter, and it’s also good to see Megan Pascoe with her bronze challenging in the 2.4mR event.

“There are still a number of areas we can improve upon though – with the wealth of talent we have in the 470 men’s class, I was disappointed not to see any British boats make the medal race so that’s an area we’ll have to work on going forward.”