Hannah Mills on a mission to become a golden girl of Olympics

SHE has quickly become the silver lining of the British sailing team. Now Welsh ace Hannah Mills is looking to become its Olympic golden girl this summer. Mills and partner Saskia Clark have forged a formidable partnership after only linking up 15 months ago, winning silvers at the Olympic Test event and the World Championships in Perth. Mills and Clark will be aiming to go one better at this year’s World Championships in Barcelona which starts on Sunday. But the Dinas Powys ace already admits Olympic gold is the medal she craves. “We have had quite a few second places,” said Mills. “It is important to keep getting consistent results and keep pressure on other teams. “We want to keep proving we are the team to beat. “While we seem to keep coming second, different teams keep winning. “That is encouraging for us because we are not struggling to beat one particular team. We have the ability to beat anyone.” Great Britain were the leading sailing nation in the last three Games and Mills admitted there was pressure to emulate the achievement. “There will be expectations of us and that is good,” she added. “I would never want to go to an Olympics and just have an outside chance of a medal because you go to a Games to win. “There are high hopes of the team and we can deliver in a number of events. “Saskia was one of only four people who did not win a medal which she explained was so hard. We don’t want to have that feeling.” Ben Ainslie remains the sailing standout performer after winning three Olympic golds and challenging for a record fourth this summer with Mills admitting he is an inspiration. “Ben is a great person to have in the team and it is a real honour to be in the same Olympic squad as him,” she added. “When I was younger he was an idol of mine so to be in the same team as him is amazing. “He has this aura and is a huge figure within the sport. “There is a lot of pressure on him from outside but he copes with it. “He has not changed and hopefully he will nail it this summer.” Mills is also backing Ainslie to recover from the controversy he suffered last December at the World Championships in Australia after he was disqualified for an altercation with a media boat. “Sailing is getting bigger in the media and people are trying to get the sport more exposure which is great,” she added. “But there are going to be occasions where you are impeded by press boats. “We had a bit of that in Miami last year where we almost crashed into them. I am not sure what the answer is. “All you can do is concentrate on your race because it is not something you can control.” Hannah’s profile has risen since she became the first Welsh sporting star to be selected for the Games last summer. Mills told the Western Mail last year about her reaction to American rapper Snoop Dogg’s backing for golden glory, while the 24-year-old has already been labelled one of the new blondes in a boat by the Sun. “We have done a few cool things and had a few interesting interviews,” she smiled. “We have seen the headline ‘Two blondes in a boat’ and that is fine. “It is a bit of fun and we like the media side of things. “We love what we do and it is great to get to speak to people about that. “Things have not changed massively since we have been selected. But it will go mental and we are preparing ourselves for that. “I can’t imagine what it is going to be like because it is the Olympic Games and it is going to be insane.” The racing experiences will be confined to the Weymouth and Portland Harbour in Dorset where she lives and trains. So the British sailors will benefit from home advantage with Mills admitting it will be more Weymouth 2012 than London 2012. “Our schedule allows us to go to the opening and closing ceremony,” she added. “Other than that we are not going to go to London because our event lasts nine days.”