Golden family contacts

CLOSE family ties have helped deliver Australia a gold medal at the sailing World Cup in Genoa with a pair of brothers racing to victory in the 49er skiff competition.

Perth brothers David and Lachy Gilmour dominated the predominantly light wind regatta for the biggest win of their short career sailing an Olympic class boat together.

The brothers only joined forces late last year to campaign for the Tokyo Olympics.

A fourth in the doublepoints medal race secured them the victory - the only one for the Australian sailing team.

“It’s pretty unreal to come away with this result in the sort of fleet we were up against,’’ Lachy Gilmour said.

“We went into the day just wanting to do what we’ve been doing all week – just sail clean and fast. We just wanted to manage ourselves and not screw up anyone else’s race.’’

The pair start preparations for the European 49er championships in the UK in May.