JACK Cookson won his first major international regatta, taking gold in the Laser fleet at the iconic Kiel Week regatta to lead a trio of medals for Britain.

The 22-year-old from Broadmayne rounded off the regatta two places ahead of Bangor’s Dan Whiteley, 21, while in the 49er fleet James Peters and Fynn Sterritt also picked up bronze following a sensational comeback.

After a shaky start to the event where he finished the regatta opener in the bottom half of the 60-boat Laser fleet, Cookson went on to record three podium finishes in the 10-race series, and only finished outside the top ten once.

He went into the final double-points medal race with a comfortable 10-point lead on closest rival Wilhelm Kark of Sweden, and sealed victory by crossing the line in fourth.

“I’m feeling pretty chuffed,” Cookson said. “I sailed a consistent series especially on the final day of fleet racing in light, shifty conditions. I had a tough start to the week with a 36 in race one but sailed very steadily for the rest of the series allowing me to gain a ten-point buffer going into the medal race.

“It feels great winning overall – it means a lot as the last two years I have suffered food poisoning and catastrophic boat breakages which meant I couldn’t finish the events.

“I’ve never liked sailing in Kiel but clearly finally it’s all come together for a fantastic way to finish the summer season.”

Whiteley finished seven points behind Kark to take bronze, and ten points ahead of fourth-placed team mate Joe Mullan.

Swanage’s Sam Whaley won the medal race to finish eighth.

Peters and Sterrittbounced back to claim bronze after jumping 10 places up the leaderboard in the final two days.

A win in the medal race secured bronze for the pair, who last month claimed the silver medal at the 49er European Championships in Weymouth and Portland.