THERE was yet more joy for British sailing today as Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson became the fourth-gold medallists of the Games with victory in the Star class.
As usual, the blue-riband event of the Olympic sailing competition brought proceedings to a close in Qingdao and it was the Union Jack that reigned supreme again as Percy and Simpson clinched a dramatic victory.
Heading in to the day's medal race
, Sydney 2000 gold medallist Percy and Simpson, who was making his Olympic debut in Beijing, trailed Swedish fleet leaders Frederik Loof and Anders Ekstrom by just two points, needing to come in the top eight and beat the Swedes to pick up a medal. And, in a nail-biting end to the regatta, the British pair pipped the Swedes at the line following a tense downwind leg to the race.
Percy said: "I knew we could do it. I knew we weren't going to bottle it and we didn't. It's been a killer four years and it feels great to put it behind us."
The result extends Team GB's lead at the top of the sailing medals table following golds for Ben Ainslie, Paul Goodison and the Yngling girls of Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson.
Joe Glanfield and Nick Rogers added silver in the men's 470 class, while Bryony Shaw added her name to the history books by becoming the first British woman to win a windsurfing medal following her bronze. "I'm shocked," said Simpson. "Words can't describe how happy we are. There's never certainty but, since last year, we focused on nothing else but this week.
"I made a few little mistakes today but we pulled it back and luckily it came good for us."
Ainslie, who became Britain's most decorated Olympic sailor of all-time when he clinched his third-successive gold last week, said: "It's fantastic for the whole team. For those guys to go out there and do what they did is unbelievable."
The full article contains 342 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
