OLYMPIC sailing hopeful Chris Grube took another step towards his target of representing Great Britain at Beijing 2008 as he took gold in the European Junior Championships in Portugal.
With team-mate Luke Patience, the 22-year-old from Mickle Trafford travelled to Tavira and snatched victory on the last day of racing.
'We were sixth after the first day,' he said. 'We can move really fast in good winds but the winds in Portugal were light mostly.
'Because of that it was a lot harder for us to make up ground on the Croatians, who were leading.
'But we eventually snatched first on the last day before winning the final race in which the top 10 race to decide the final placings.
'It was an important win because it keeps us on track to become serious contenders to represent Britain at the 2008 Olympics.'
Chris and Luke will get the opportunity to test their skills on Chinese water ahead of the Olympics.
The pair have this week travelled to Rizhao at the mouth of the Yangtze River to compete in the senior World Championships.
The event will give them an opportunity to challenge their number one rivals for the Great Britain Olympic sailing spot, Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield, who won silver in the 470 class at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
'These are the guys we have to measure ourselves against and these are the guys we have to beat if we want to compete for our country,' said Chris.
'We are proving ourselves all the time and we are beating those nations who provide a strong challenge. We need to beat competitors from our own nation too if we want a shot at the Olympics.
'China will be difficult again because the weather is very hot and the winds are very light at the moment.
But we have shown we can get results in those conditions so we just have to go out and do it.'
