After five days of racing at Holland's Olympic qualifying Spa regatta and a final race in light and shifty breezes, Hampshire Olympic sailors and RYA Team GBR struck gold.

Winchester's Iain Percy and Steve Mitchell in the Star, Ben Ainslie from Lymington in the Finn, Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks in the 49er and Cowes based Leigh McMillan and Mark Bulkeley in the Tornado all scooped gold medals.

Bronze medals were won by Laser sailor Paul Goodison, and Yngling sailors Shirley Robertson, Sarah Webb and Sarah Ayton.

Both Percy/Mitchell and Ainslie dominated their respective classes and won the regatta with an astounding day to spare.

In the Star class, world champions Percy and Mitchell consistently gained results in the top ten to win by a margin of 17 points from their closest rivals. Percy commented: "We are very happy with how we have sailed this week. We have had good boat speed and it is really pleasing to win this regatta for a second time - especially with all the top sailors competing this week."

Double Olympic champion Ben Ainslie scored four firsts and two fourth places throughout the week to win with a day to spare.

Ainslie admitted: "I am really happy with my performance this week. I sailed well in the heavy airs at the beginning of the week which is good as I sometimes struggle in those conditions."

A 12th place finish in the final race ensured Team GBR sailors Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks the gold medal from Chris Nicholson and Gary Boyd of Australia. Fellow British sailors Paul Brotherton of Locks Heath and Mark Asquith from Stubbington just dropped out of the medals on the final day, finishing in fourth place overall with teammates Alister Richardson and Peter Greenhalgh finishing in eighth.

The big news was that Cowes' Leigh McMillan and Mark Bulkeley put in an fantastic performance during the week to take the gold medal in the Tornado class, which marks their first ever grade one event win and first regatta win by British sailors in the Tornado class for some 15 years.

On the final day they managed an 11th place finish in the light conditions securing gold leaving the 1996 Olympic silver medallist with the silver medal and Hugh Styles and Adam May struggling.

A beaming McMillan said: "We have been working really hard recently on a few aspects of our sailing and the boat seems to be going quicker as a result.

"We are really pleased to have won our first grade one event, especially as all of the top guys in the class were present.

"We now look forward to the Europeans in a few weeks' time and hope to be able to repeat this result."

In the three women Yngling class, Cowes Olympic sailor Shirley Robertson, sailing with Sarah Ayton and Sarah Webb, dominated the class in the heavier conditions.

However, the team could not match this performance in the light winds and dropped to third place overall - a good result considering it was the first time this combination of crew had sailed together.

A bronze medal also went to Paul Goodison in the Laser class. He sailed a good series, seven of his results being inside the top three.