WEYMOUTH’S Giles Scott and Bryony Shaw sealed early ISAF World Cup victories in Miami, with the British Sailing Team also claiming two silver medals as Paralympic classes racing drew to a close on Biscayne Bay.

Finn star Scott extended his dominance in the heavyweight dinghy class to defend his crown and add another title to his 15-month winning run, while Shaw also amassed an unassailable lead to continue her form in the RS:X women’s windsurfing class.

Friday’s forecast promised a decaying breeze as the day went on, with the 10am starters certainly enjoying the best of the light wind conditions.

The Finn fleet managed their scheduled two races just before the wind shut down, with Scott winning the first of them and finishing fifth in the second, with Australia’s Jake Lilley – his closest rival heading into the day – finishing deep in the pack.

It was enough to see the world and European champion go into the final day with an insurmountable 23-point lead.

“It feels very good to be able to round off the racing this morning and have a 23-point lead and not have a stressful day tomorrow,” 28-year-old Scott admitted.

“It was a difficult day today. We were kind of lucky in that we were on so early so we got the morning breeze.

“It was very light, very shifty, so to be able to continue the sort of consistency I’ve had all week is great.”

Shaw has certainly found her groove as she also looked to defend her title from this event 12 months ago.

Counting no worse than a fifth place across her 11 races heading into Friday’s penultimate day, the 31-year-old old pumped her way to a second and a fourth in the two light wind races the class managed, turning her 21-point lead at the start of the day into a 33-point margin by the end of it.

The Weymouth sailor was delighted to claim gold with an impressive all-round performance amid some tricky conditions at this season-opening event.

“We’ve had a really mixed week of wind and today has been the lightest so it’s been much more like a game of chess I would say.

“I’ve been trying to stay in touch with my closest rivals. The wind’s been really tricky with an offshore breeze so we’re really having to play the percentages.

“I did that well in the two races.

“Considering we’ve had all winds from 25 knots down to five it’s been a really broad-ranging week and I think that’s played to my strengths.

“Every day I’ve been edging that points gap bigger and bigger so I’ve been pleased to start off the year well.

“Miami was a target regatta for me and it’s important to kick-start the year on a high with a view to trying to get medals at the next Olympic Games. It’s important to start winning now and try to keep that momentum going.”

Friday was the final day of competition for the three Paralympic Classes, but racing proved impossible as what little breeze there was diminished.

It left Portland’s 2.4mR sailor Megan Pascoe and the SKUD of Alexandra Rickham-Niki Birrell without the opportunity to upgrade their silver positions into golds, with the Sonar trio of John Robertson, Hannah Stodel and Steve Thomas finishing just a point outside of the medal positions after a false start penalty saw them drop to fourth.

Although frustrated with her own false start on Thursday, Pascoe was content with her performance this week.

“Another World Cup medal – I think that means I’ve won a medal at every EUROSAF and World Cup event for the past two years, so happy days,” she said.

“It’s been a really tough week actually so I’m really happy to come out of it with silver.

“I was really happy with how I was going yesterday boat speed-wise. I struggle in that 10-13 knots usually so I’m really happy that I made a gain there actually.”

Today sees the medal races for the ten Olympic classes, with 14 British boats set to feature in final day action.

Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark sit in silver medal position going into the 470 women’s medal race, with Sophie Weguelin and Portland’s Eilidh McIntyre, currently fifth, also able to push into the podium spots.

Alison Young and Weymouth’s Nick Dempsey are into their respective Laser Radial and RS:X men’s finals in fifth position, while Charlotte Dobson and Sophie Ainsworth have made the cut in the 49erFX event in 10th place.