Team GBR claim Finn Europeans gold and bronze

British Finn success at the Open Europeans

Britain's Giles Scott won the Finn Europeans after his claimed victory in today's medal race. He ruffled the leader and defending champion Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic (CRO) in the pre-start and emerged ahead to take the lead finally on the second upwind. A fourth for the Croatian levelled the points with Scott, but Scott took the European title based on his medal race result.

The battle for bronze between Andrew Mills (GBR) and Thomas Le Breton (FRA) left Mills ahead of Le Breton, covering him throughout the race to finish eighth and ninth - as a result Mills took the bronze.

It was a long wait for the medal race as early morning there was no wind, but it eventually got underway in 6-8 knots at about 1330 and soon increased to 10-11 knots as the sea breeze began to build, with the Oscar flag, for free pumping, going up on the second downwind.

Scott was ecstatic in his victory, his first major championship win and coming weeks after his disappointment at losing the British trials for the  Olympic test event. His first reaction, "Total relief!"

"A big thanks to Peter Reggio for doing a great job. I think everyone would agree we had some great racing and he had some tricky decision to make and I for one think he made the correct decision every time. I'm sure most of my competitors know that at Sail for Gold, I finished second, so to be honest to come here and win just feels great."

The Junior title went to Josip Olujic (CRO). Going into the regatta as one of the favourites for the Junior title, he trailed Egor Terpigorev (RUS) from the opening day and only passed him on the tricky races on Wednesday. In third place is the fast improving Julian Massler (GER).

For the 470s, today was the day which decided the top 10 boats going through to each of the 470 Men and 470 Women medal races tomorrow.

In the 470 Men perhaps local knowledge it was that helped Finnish brothers Joonas and Niklas Lindgren deliver a race win in the 470 Men Gold fleet and qualify through to the Medal Race. Eyes are now on this team to carry Finland's pride and become the top performing Finnish team of the entire Olympic Class European Championships. Whilst they are out of medal contention they can still move up the leaderboard by several places.

It was a case of job done for Mat Belcher/Malcolm Page (AUS) who have secured their victory as the 470 Open European Championships, despite their worst result of the series as they got buried in the fleet after a bad choice saw them take the left hand side of the track upwind to cross the line in 25th.

The British team of Luke Patience/Stuart Bithell also headed this way, finishing 27th in race 12 and have suffered the consequences, dropping from second overall to fourth going into the Medal Race. With the quality of this fleet and double points in the Medal Race, Patience/Bithell have got a big ask on their hands to be near the podium. There was equal disappointment for Japan's Ryunosuke Harada/Yugo Yoshida with a 29th in race 12 tumbling them down to ninth overall which puts an end to their progress towards the podium.

A frustrated Patience reflected, “We have thrown away some mega points in the results. I hope we are in a position where we can still win a medal.”

Sime Fantela/Igor Marenic (CRO) sailed a good race today to go into the Medal Race in second overall and with a pop at both the European and Open European podium places. Marenic was pleased with their delivery: “It was quite a hard race. We had some difficulties on the start and then we managed to get clear wind quite early and decided to go right which was better, so it worked really well from the first upwind. We were then at the top of the fleet and so just sailed.”

In the 470 Women the new British pairing of Hannah Mills/Saskia Clark flew around the race track to dominate throughout, to take the win in race 12, increasing their chances of a medal position moving them up to fourth place overall.

However, it is still Spain's remarkable young team of Tara Pacheco/Berta Betanzos who led the fleet and after today's result are assured to gold or silver. “We have to keep going and doing well in the Medal Race tomorrow and just think about it”, said Pacheco. The Spanish regularly train with the second placed Brazilian team Fernanda Oliveira/Ana Luisa Barbachan and Pacheco acknowledged her pleasure that both teams have done so well here in Helsinki, “Yeh, yeh – I think that tomorrow we will also train together before the start. We will see.” Pacheco's plan for tonight is “a big hamburger!” and “maybe go to bed early.”

The Danish team of Henriette Koch/Lene Sommer (DEN) stay firm in third overall and a finish of seventh of better tomorrow will see them at worse safely secure the bronze medal. However they are looking for a higher place than that, as Koch said: “If we sail well it is going to end up pretty good for us, so that is what we are going to focus on.”

The schedule for the final day of racing at the 2011 470 European Championships is a warning signal at 0955 hours for 470 Women Race 13 (excluding top 10), followed by 470 Men Gold (excluding top 10) and 470 Silver. The warning signal for the 470 Men Medal Race is scheduled for 1155 hours and for the 470 Women Medal Race at 1255 hours.

Medals will be awarded to the teams eligible for the 470 European Championships, with prizes also awarded to the top three boats in the 470 Open European Championships.