BRITAIN’S 49er sailors proved a dominant force at the World Cup Gamagori, which drew to a close under the looming threat of Typhoon Lan.

The regatta – the first in the 2018 World Cup Series – yielded a British one-two in the men’s skiff class, with World and European Champions Dylan Fletcher and Portland-based Stuart Bithell claiming the regatta victory on Saturday’s first medal race day.

The duo have now won their past three events in a row, seeing off a strong challenge from team-mates and eventual silver medallists James Peters and Fynn Sterritt, while Laser talent Lorenzo Chiavarini narrowly missed out on the podium spots on Sunday’s weather-affected final day of racing at the Japanese venue.

Fletcher and Bithell had taken a five-point lead over their British stablemates into the three-race finale for the 49er fleet, with the two teams battling it out for top honours right through until the final run of the final race.

Peters and Sterritt, who won silver at both the Worlds and Europeans, cranked up the pressure early on, with a win in the first race of three narrowing the gap.

But Fletcher and Bithell turned the tables in the second to set up a final race showdown for gold.

“We were both guaranteed silver going into the last race,” Fletcher explained. “We chose to match race them to put us as far as possible down the fleet to ensure we would beat them because we were ahead on points.

“It was going smoothly until we made a mistake, at the bottom, and they wiggled free.”

Fletcher-Bithell sailed back past their team-mates to finish sixth in the final race, ahead of Peters and Sterritt in eighth, and secure gold by six points.

“It’s been a fantastic year. We started sailing together a year ago and it’s gone from strength to strength,” said Fletcher. “We’ve medalled at all the major events, and we’ve won the last three on the trot. At the moment we’re in our little purple streak and hopefully we can dominate like the Kiwis did and beat them when they come back.

“We have all been working very hard and it’s nice to see that it’s paying off with the Worlds, Europeans and the Gamagori World Cup Series, we have been doing really well,” added Bithell of the strong British 49er squad performance this season.

Rio Olympian and double World Champion Nick Thompson finished his regatta in fifth, with a third place in the medal race, while Michael Beckett was sixth overall and eighth in the medal race.

Meanwhile, Luke Patience and Chris Grube, competing at their first major event since Rio 2016, fell foul of a jury disqualification on Saturday night which relegated them into ninth place going into the 470 men’s finale on Sunday, having been in third place prior to the protest.

Ultimately, their medal race was called off leaving them no opportunity to improve on their overall position.

“We came here really to kick off what is our Tokyo 2020 programme. It’s the first time we’ve really been back in the boat since the Olympics,” Patience explained.

“It’s actually been a good week. It’s been horrible weather-wise with the rain, but it’s been good racing and we’ve been pleased to just get a series in.”

“We’re really, really excited and more importantly very energised for what’s ahead. We took a year off, and I needed that as it’s been 12 years without a break of doing the same,” continued the Olympic silver medallist. “I’ve gained some great perspective, but more than anything else it’s about the hunger. I’m more mad for it than I’ve ever been I think, which is a cool thing to say at 31-years-old.

“There’s less than three years to go [to Tokyo 2020], but having had that time away, I think I can compress a lot of work in a short space of time.”

The eighteen British Sailing Team athletes to compete at the World Cup Gamagori will now make their way to the 2020 Olympic Games venue for Enoshima Olympic Week (October 27-29), where they’ll be joined by Finn sailors Ben Cornish and Giles Scott, who will be racing in his first Finn regatta since claiming gold in Rio.