West Mersea sailor Saskia Clark claimed an impressive gold at the World Cup regatta in France – but admitted there is still progress to be made.

Clark and sailing partner Hannah Mills were first in the 470 Women’s class on the final day of Olympic class competition in Hyeres to secure a welcome boost, in their preparations for this summer’s Olympic Games.

Clark was delighted with the victory at the stormy French Riviera venue, as the duo continue to lay the groundwork for what they hope will be medal success in Rio.

Clark said: “It’s obviously great to come to any World Cup regatta and win it.

“For me and Hannah to convert a second into a first in the medal race shows we’re making progress with our comms and everything but we’ve still got progress to make.”

Mills and Clark went into the final race in overall second place, a point behind the French leaders and a point ahead of the Brazilian crew, in third.

The Brazilian team of Fernanda Oliviera and Ana Luisa Barbachan got off to a superior start, leaving the Olympic silver medallists from Great Britain to protect their silver position against the hosts’ Camille Lecointre and Helene Defrance.

But the New Zealand Olympic champions Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie reined in the Brazilian duo on the second lap, which meant that Mills and Clark’s third place in the medal race, with the French still behind them, allowed them to take gold.

Mills said: “It (the final race) was exciting – it was absolutely freezing as well!

“I think some English weather maybe helped us today!

“It was really exciting, really tight, all the top boats were right up there in the mix so it was a who beats who scenario.

“We had our eyes on what was going on, we caught the Brazilians up quite a lot up on that second beat and once we saw that the Kiwis had definitely passed them we relaxed a bit on them and really wanted to protect the French to make sure we got the win.

“Obviously [the Kiwis were] a huge help at that point in the race - it was a fun, exciting race.”

Clark and Mills were the British Sailing Team’s golden girls on a final day of World Cup racing, which also yielded a silver and two bronze medals for Great Britain’s Olympic medal hopefuls.