Sailing duo Patience and Grube, who are sponsored by The Miller Group, have made a real splash in 2008 by moving closer to Olympic selection after achieving the British number one spot and reaching number 16 in the world rankings.

Luke Patience (22), from Helensburgh, and Chris Grube (23), from Chester, teamed up in 2004 to campaign as full-time sailors in the 470 sailing dinghy, one of the most competitive of Olympic dinghy classes.

The Miller Group pledged to back the young sailors in 2007 to help them train at Olympic level. The duo's hard work has certainly paid off after a strong performance in a number of high profile competitions enabling them to climb over 15 places up the world rankings in July this year, and achieved the number one British title for the third year running.

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This year, they finished ninth in Melbourne at an International Grade 1 Regatta and eighteenth in the World Championships. They then upgraded to the World Class Performance Squad within Skandia Team GBR, enabling them to be considered for selection at a pre-Olympics stage.

This achievement was matched with even more success when they took part in the European Championships at Lake Garda finishing eighth. This winning streak caught the attention of Olympic sailors Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield when they asked Patience and Grube to become their training partners in China.

Luke said: "We are thrilled with our performance this year, it has been a real whirlwind. The support from The Miller Group enables us to train and compete at a very high level. This matched with the superb experience gained in China has made us even more determined to make our dream of 2012 selection a reality."

Keith Miller, Group Chief Executive of The Miller Group, said: "We are proud of both Luke and Chris’ achievements this year and are confident they will continue to keep up the good work which will undoubtedly help in their progress to accomplish Olympic selection."

The Miller Group is the UK's largest privately owned Housebuilding, Property Development and Construction business. The Group has operations throughout the UK and Europe and employs over 2,000 people. It is involved in a wide range of prestigious and substantial projects throughout the UK and is a major player in the Public Private Partnership (PPP) and Private Finance Initiative (PFI) arenas.

(GK/JM)