Asher and Willis will be going for a third 470 world title in July

British sailors Nic Asher and Elliot Willis clinched gold in the 470 class at the fifth World Cup event of the season in Medemblik, Holland.

The two-time world champions went into the medal race with a seven-point lead and came home fourth to pip the Australian and Croatian teams.

"The win is good - we've had a barren spell so it's good to be back on winning form," said Asher.

"Hopefully it'll continue in July for our World Championships."

Asher and Willis had led by 20 points going into the final day but a disqualification in the penultimate fleet race dropped them back into second overall.

But they bounced back with a fifth in Saturday's second fleet race to restore the lead going into the 10-boat medal race, which was sailed in shifty wind and rain showers.

"The first couple of laps were pretty standard really," said Willis.

"We had good boat speed, the boat felt nice. Up at the end of the last weather leg, just before all the rain came in, the wind started to go wacky and we got a little bit caught out in the middle.

"Two boats overtook us and we went round the windward mark in a big group and had seen that the Croatian guy had gybed out of the windward mark and was reaching down towards the finish in a load of breeze that had come in ahead of the cloud. We gybed just after the mark and then just reached to the finish."

He added: "Our conservative day didn't go to plan, picking up an OCS [disqualification] in the first race but then we pulled it back to fifth, so it wasn't a great day - we made it hard for ourselves when we shouldn't have really."

Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell also featured for Britain in the medal race, finishing their regatta in eighth place overall, the same position occupied by John Gimson and Ed Greig, who also concluded their racing in the Star class on Saturday.

Development squad duo Hannah Mills and Claire Cumming, sailing their first season together, were the sole Britons in the 470 women's medal race.

They finished ninth overall after a ninth place in the final 10-boat race, but were in a positive mood after a week of learning.

"We've had a really good week, even though it didn't end quite as we'd have hoped," said Mills.

Team GBR will look to make their mark again on Sunday, with 12 boats featuring in the medal races on the final day of the regatta.

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