WINCHESTER'S Iain Percy added to his Olympic Finn class gold medal by winning the Star class world championships in Marina del Rey, California, last week, along with Steve Mitchell.

In so doing they made a name for themselves in sailing history as the first Brits ever to win this prestigious event. They sailed into the California Yacht Club dock victorious, with a Union Jack flying from their mast - although Iain did not realise they had it on board:

"Steve put that in the cool box this morning and didn't tell me. I would have thought it was bad luck!" he said later.

But the way they sailed, luck didn't enter into the equation. Neither Iain (26) nor Steve (32, from London and a past Etchells world champion) had sailed a Star until 10 months ago. Since then they've trained hard both in Europe and the USA, gradually moving up the world rankings to 17.

With finishes of 4-1-3-2 in the 103 boat fleet, Iain and Steve entered the final race with a four-point lead. Boosted by breezes as strong as 14 knots, they finished 41 seconds ahead of the 1998 winner from Australia.

RYA Olympic manager Stephen Park was delighted. "With the calibre of the sailors at the Star worlds and the depth of experience that those sailors have in the class, it was always going to be a tough regatta.

"Iain and Steve have excelled themselves. Nobody could have expected that they'd master the Star in such a relatively short amount of time."

The pair now go to Spain for further training before the Star European Championships in Italy.