Hail Hannah, queen of the waves
Sailor lands her third gold on glorious day for Team GB
HANNAH Mills was crowned queen of the waves yesterday on another day of Team GB triumph in Tokyo.
The 33-year-old became the most successful female Olympic sailor in history by winning the 470 event. She already had golds from Rio 2016 and London 2012.
With crewmate Eilidh McIntyre, herself the daughter of an Olympic champion, she jumped into the water to celebrate after dominating the regatta at Enoshima Yacht Harbour.
The duo were part of another barnstorming day for Team GB at Tokyo 2020, helped by a gold in showjumping by a margin of just 17 hundredths of a second. There was a silver and bronze in boxing.
The day was capped with the crowning of Britain’s youngest ever Olympic medallist, when 13-year-old Sky Brown flipped and tricked her way to bronze in the new skateboarding competition.
The haul of five medals saw Britain jump to fourth place in the overall honours table behind China, USA and hosts Japan.
Miss Mills, who was a Team GB flag bearer at the opening ceremony in Tokyo, will not be
‘I’ve dreamt about it my entire life’
showing off her medals at home, her father revealed yesterday.
‘She hides them under the floorboards for safekeeping,’ said Chris Mills, 67.
‘She had to move them recently when builders were doing some work on her house – it’s become a bit of a family joke.’
He and wife Fiona had a sleepless night knowing their daughter had to finish in the top seven of her last race in Tokyo to take gold. They awoke at 4am and headed to Cardiff Yacht Club where friends and family had gathered to watch the race – with champagne standing by on ice.
Miss Mills said after her victory: ‘It’s been one of the hardest weeks of my life. I’m sure for Eilidh as well, just every day, not being able to eat, just nerves building up, the emotion of just ... we’ve done it!’
The elated parents of Miss McIntyre, 27, said she was inspired by father Michael’s gold medal hanging outside her bedroom as a child. He won in the star sailing class at the 1988 Games in Seoul.
Miss McIntyre, from Hayling Island, Hampshire, said: ‘I can’t believe that this has happened. I’ve dreamt about it my entire life with my dad and it’s just such an amazing feeling. To my dad, thank you for everything. Thank you for being my inspiration, for being at the end of the phone whenever I wanted to talk. ‘I want to thank my whole family and my poor mum. She’s had to live through the stress of this twice!’
Ben Maher won a showjumping gold for Great Britain riding wonderhorse Explosion W. The 38-year-old produced a dazzling display to win by a nose, equalling Team GB’s best equestrian performance at a single Olympics. It matched the tally of five at London 2012 – where Maher became an Olympic champion for the first time in the team event. He said: ‘It doesn’t seem real. I am biased but I believe I am on the best horse, he is an incredible horse.’ In the boxing ring, Ben Whittaker, 24, won silver in the light-heavyweight division.
He was defeated by Cuba’s arlen Lopez, a 30-year-old who is now a double Olympic champion. a tearful Whittaker said afterwards: ‘You don’t win silver, you lose gold.’
On the podium he refused to wear his medal, instead shoving it in his pocket. He later apologised for his sulkiness saying: ‘I was doing it for everybody at home and I felt like a failure.’
Frazer Clarke, 29, took bronze in the super-heavyweight class. His bout with Uzbekistan’s Bakhodir Jalolov was stopped after he suffered a bad cut.