Mills and McIntyre beaten to European gold by French pair

Olympic champion Mills and Hayling Island's McIntyre started the medal race in pole position but light winds made for a tough afternoon and they were narrowly beaten by France’s Camille Lecointre and Aloise Retornaz. However, the result does continue a run of strong form for the British duo, who also scooped the Princess Sofia Trophy regatta in Palma in April

"The medal race was a tough race for us,” said Mills.

"It didn’t look like we executed what we wanted to do – it felt like we were fighting to do what we wanted but we always had boats in the middle of the pack so we couldn’t quite do that.

"It was a bit frustrating and I made some mistakes. In general it’s just been a long hard week with a lot of waiting around, but we still came away with silver and we’re really happy with that."

In the men’s event, London 2012 silver medallist Luke Patience and Chris Grube finished 14th.

Elsewhere, Olympic champion Giles Scott made an impressive start in the Finn class by winning the first race of the regatta.

Sportsbeat 2019