British Olympic gold medallist Iain Percy and team mate Steve Mitchell made a good start in their bid to win a second world championship title on the first day of the Audi Star class world championship yesterday at Gaeta, Italy.

After a long postponement waiting for the wind to fill in, racing finally got underway for the 115 competitors in 12-20 knots of breeze. Trying to get the large fleet off was no easy task and after a general recall there was an individual recall, which caught out many of the top sailors at the event. Amongst them were Americans Paul Cayard and Phil Trinter, the 2000 Olympic gold medallist Mark Reynolds and the reigning world champions Xavier Rohart and Pascal Rambeau of France.

Rounding the first mark in fifth place, Percy and Mitchell worked their way through the fleet, climbing to second by the next windward mark and finally taking the lead. They crossed the line first in front of Mark Mansfield and Killian Collins of Ireland and European champions Fredrik Loof and Anders Ekstrom of Sweden.

A total of six races are scheduled for the championship which concludes on the 1 May.

Results (day 1)

1, Iain Percy/Steve Mitchell, GBR (1) 1 pt

2, Mark Mansfield/Killian Collins, IRL (2) 2 pts

3, Fredrik Look/Anders Ekstrom, SWE (3) 3 pts