Britain's youth sailors came away from the Volvo Youth World Championships in Crozon-Morgat, near Brest in France, having staked their claims for medals in the next Olympics with Hayling Island youngster Mark Powell slipping comfortably into the shoes of Ben Ainslie in the Laser class with a gold medal.

Powell, who celebrated his 18th birthday last week, took first place in a total field of 240 young sailors from around 48 nations after finishing fifth in the final race.

"I never expected to win," said Portsmouth-born Powell who recently accepted a place to study maths at Oxford University in the autumn.

"I thought I would have a chance to get a medal, but I also knew there would be a lot of really good guys here."

He was advised by Britain's top Laser sailor Paul Goodison to stay in the top five in every race.

"But in these shifty conditions it was just to stay in the top 10," said Mark.

Last year's 420 World Champions Emma and Victoria Rawlinson from Hampshire took silver having been handicapped in their preparations by GCSEs and A-levels - Victoria finished her final exam just hours before flying out.

"With exams at the same time it's been hard, we managed a lot of fitness and that sort of thing but not enough at the end of the day," said Victoria, who is set to join the BUSA squad when she attends Southampton University in September to start a medicine degree.

The loss of the title came as a blow to the Farnham sisters who are well-known for their determination and focus.

"We're a bit disappointed. We had pressure on from the start being defending champions and everyone expected us to win but the Australians sailed better than us. They sailed a really good regatta."

Youth manager Steve Joel was extremely pleased with the team's performance. "It's absolutely fantastic that the team has won three medals," he said, after Liverpool's Natalie Lloyd won bronze in the girl's Laser class.

"Mark has been training really hard over the last two months between his exams with coach Mark Littlejohn. Victoria and Emma have put in an excellent performance. The team has delivered and achieved success and it's a great achievement for Natalie to medal at her first Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship.

"We've achieved our goal of third place in the Volvo Cup which is an excellent team performance. We've gone from eighth, to fourth to third overall in the last three events. We're looking forward to Canada next year already."