Olympic gold medallist Hannah Mills began with three victories in Greece ©Getty Images

Rio 2016 Olympic gold medallist Hannah Mills began the 470 World Championships in style with three race wins alongside Eilidh McIntyre at the Nautical Club of Thessaloniki.

The British sailors were in fine form in Greek waters as they won every race staged in the women's yellow group.

Mills won the world title in 2012 in Barcelona alongside Saskia Clark - the same sailor she paired with to win the Olympic crown in Rio in August.

She sits joint first with new partner McIntyre in Thessaloniki after Slovenians Tina Mrak and Veronika Macarol also enjoyed a strong opening day.

They won two races in the blue group and also notched a third place finish - with the latter result currently discarded as their poorest performance.

Both the British and Slovenian duos have two points.

China's Xiaoli Want and Haiyang Gao and Britain's Amy Seabright and Anna Carpenter both have four points to put pressure on the leading pairs.

The Chinese recorded two second place finishes and a discarded 12th in the blue group, with the British duo also gaining two runners-up results as well as a discarded fifth.

Chinese sailors Xiaoli Wang and Haiyang Gao were the only other duo to win a race, in the yellow group, but they also recorded 11th and 16th place finishes to slide down the leaderboard. 

In the men's event, Sweden's Anton Dahlberg and Fredrik Bergstrom were the star performers as they won twice and were second once in the yellow group.

Anton Dahlberg and Fredrik Bergstrom were the best performing men's team ©Getty Images
Anton Dahlberg and Fredrik Bergstrom were the best performing men's team ©Getty Images

It means they sit top of the standings on two points.

London 2012 Olympic champions Mathew Belcher and William Ryan of Australia are one of two duos tied in second place on five points.

The Rio 2016 silver medallists, who are three-time 470 world champions, won once in the blue group and finished fourth twice.

Turkish brothers Deniz and Ates Cinar also have five points after second and third place finishes in the blue group, and a discarded 11th.

Americans Stuart McNay and David Hughes are one of three teams on six points after winning a race in the blue group.

Italians Giacomo Ferrari and Giulio Calabro also won in the blue group, but then came 14th and 15th.

It was a similarly mixed day for Japan's Daichi Takayama and Kimihiko Imamura, who won a race in the yellow group but also came 11th and 23rd.

The 470 event is the first World Championship of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic cycle.

Action continues tomorrow, with the medal races scheduled for July 15.