Hannah Mills becomes first girl to win Optimist Nationals

Pwllheli Sailing Club in North Wales played host to the Volvo Musto Optimist National Championships 2002 (4-10 August). 294 sailors were competing including entries from America, Holland, Germany, France and Ireland.

The Optimist is the most popular dinghy class and the majority of the worlds best sailors learnt to sail in it. 90% of the sailors who competed at the Sydney Olympic Games learnt to sail in an Optimist. Ben Ainslie, double Olympic medallist in the Laser Class, won the Optimist National Championships in 1992.

The Senior fleet was won by, Welsh sailing sensation Hannah Mills, (14, Dinas Powys) who has recently returned from the Optimist World Championships in Texas where she finished a commendable ninth place - the highest place for a British girl ever. In Pwllheli, Hannah won seven of the twelve races, being crowned the Volvo Musto Optimist National Champion with two races to spare.

"After the World Championships I was hoping to do well at this event I. I am very proud to be crowned the National Champion, especially as I am the first girl ever to win this event and also that the Championship has taken place in my home country, Wales," said Hannah.

Hannah's British nearest rival was 14 year old James Murdock from Bowmoor Sailing Club, who was thirty three points behind Hannah and her nearest female rival Maria Stanley finished 184 points astray.

In the Junior fleet, the race for title was closer fought. Identical twins, Tim and Ben Saxton (12, Grafham Water) were battling it out at the front of the fleet eventually finishing third and fifth respectively. But it was another girl, Claire Lasko (12, Oxford) who took the title having sailed a very consistent series, her worst race scoring a fifth place. Claire was placed a very respectable 16th place at the Optimist European Championships last month. Second place was taken by David de Boltz (12, Burnham on Crouch).

"I came to this event, aiming to better my position from last year, when I was fourth overall and first girl, so I am really pleased to be the Volvo Musto National Champion in the Junior fleet," said a very happy Claire.

John Lefley, Director of Press and Events at Volvo Car UK announced their continued sponsorship of the event along with Musto. "Another excellent week of youth sailing. The enthusiasm and skills demonstrated this week at such an early age is to be commended and we enjoy our involvement with the Optimist class. It is therefore perhaps appropriate after such a good weeks racing that Volvo Car UK and Musto recently announced its intention to continue the sponsorship of the Optimist class in the future".

The National Championships is one of the three key Optimist sailing regattas, the other events being the Volvo Musto Inland Championships and the Volvo Musto End of Season Championships which take place at Draycote Sailing Club in October. After competing at all three Championships the National squad for 2003 will be selected.

"Musto are proud to sponsor the Volvo Musto Optimist Sailing Program, and think it is very important to be involved with the grass roots of sailing," said Nigel Musto, Deputy Managing Director at Musto Performance. " I was very impressed with the standard of sailing that I have seen over the week, and look forward to watching these young sailors following in the foot steps of Britain's other sailing sensations, including the Volvo Musto Optimist ambassador Iain Percy".