Hannah voted Welsh Young Sailor of the Year (From Penarth Times)

Hannah voted Welsh Young Sailor of the Year

BRITISH STEEL SAILING Club member Hannah Mills (13), of Dinas Powys, has finished this year's Optimist Sailing season on a high. She has been voted MDL Welsh Young Sailor of the Year.

She has had a great season sailing in regattas in Holland and Belgium, the latter where she came sixth. This summer Hannah represented Great Britain at the Optimist European Championships in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria.

She had some excellent results, the best being a first on the penultimate day. She finished 11th European in the girls' fleet.

Upon returning home, Hannah, a pupil at Howell's School, Llandaff, has sailed in several more regattas. She won the PGL regatta at Llangorse and the Optimist Open at Poole.

On the first weekend in October Hannah, together with Thomas Mallandine and Claire Lasko, represented British Steel Sailing Club in the National Optimist Team Racing Championships at Spinnaker Sailing Club. They came fifth.

On the weekend of October 5 and 6, Hannah competed in the last major British Ranking event. The weather was horrendous with extremely strong winds.

Only one race out of six was sailed and Hannah had two capsizes which put paid to her leading position. She finished 21st. However, Hannah has still maintained her position in the British National Optimist Sailing Squad.

She now has a break but starts training with the Welsh Sailing Squad, under Alan Williams, and the British Squad in December.