THE Weymouth and Portland-based trio of John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas closed out a hard-fought victory in the Sonar class to take on gold on the final day of the Para World Sailing Championships in Melbourne.

In winning, the three-time Paralympians made it a hat-trick of world golds after triumphs in 2005 and 2006.

And they certainly cut it fine this time around as the triumvirate edged home by a single point over Australia’s series leaders Colin Harrison, Jonathan Harris and Russell Boaden following yesterday’s final race on Port Phillip Bay.

Their gold is added to the silver already secured by fellow Brits Alexandra Rickham and Niki Birrell in the SKUD class on Wednesday.

“It feels just amazing,” said a delighted helm Robertson. “We’ve missed out a few times over the last few years. This year’s been a lot of hard work to try and make big gains.

“Our goal this year was to win the worlds so to have it there for real is just superb.” Stodel added: “It was a stressful race but we pulled it out the bag and we’re really happy.

“We’re not mad keen on the light winds but we were steady away and just took it as it was.

“We had a big discussion pre-start about what we were going to do, we went out and stuck to it and just sailed away.”

The trio’s last World Championship medal – a bronze – came three years ago, and with their eyes on selection to a fourth Paralympic Games in Rio next year, Welshman Thomas admits that victory in Melbourne has provided a timely confidence boost.

“We sat down and said we wanted to win a gold medal at the worlds and we’ve delivered on that,” he said.

“Selection (for Rio) is still in the balance but hopefully we’ve done enough for that, and we’re a strong unit. “We’re getting stronger and stronger, which is going to put us in good stead for Rio.

“We had to bounce back quite a lot from some pretty tough positions on the race course and we’ve also just tried to enjoy it this week as well and enjoy the process.

“That’s probably the best bit, that we’ve seen the progress from last year to this year.

“The plan was put in place and we’ve delivered on that plan.”

The trio faced an anxious wait after racing for final confirmation of their result, with the Australians seeking to overturn a jury decision from earlier in the week.

But it ultimately proved unsuccessful and the British team was able to finally celebrate their success.

Elsewhere in the Sonar fleet, Craig Wood, Steve Palmer and Liam Cattermole finished their regatta in 12th overall.

In the 2.4mR fleet, Paralympic champion Helena Lucas sailed a great final race but missed out on bronze by two points.

Portland’s Megan Pascoe ended her regatta in fifth overall, with a second place in the final race, while Will Street was 24th overall.