Yngling trio bag gold

Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson claimed a gold medal for Britain with victory in the Yngling medal race at the Olympic sailing regatta on Sunday.

In what amounted to a two-horse race for the gold against the Netherlands in the Yngling class, Team GB came home in first place for the first time in the regatta with the Dutch trailing in fifth in heavy conditions on the Yellow Sea.

The British trio entered the regatta as heavy favourites after dominating the Yngling class for the past two years, winning back-to-back world championships, last year's Olympic test event in Qingdao and this year's European championships.

But they went into the medal race with only a slender one-point advantage after finishing fifth behind the winning Dutch crew of Mandy Mulder, Annermieke Bes and Merel Witteveen in the eighth and final preliminary race on Friday.

Light, unsettled wind conditions saw the race being postponed from Saturday but the boats were eventually flagged off in much heavier conditions 24 hours later as strong winds and heavy rain descended on the waters off Qingdao.

The Dutch had the jump on the British boat at the start but it was Team GB that reached the windward mark first, just a second in front of the Dutch and the rest of the field.

They maintained their lead at the second mark and although they were overtaken by Germany during the second leg, the Netherlands had dropped back to sixth, 51 seconds adrift of the British.

Ayton, Webb and Wilson regained the lead on the run to the finish line and crossed the line seven seconds ahead of Germany and a minute in front of the fifth-placed Dutch.

The Netherlands eventually took the silver while Greece finished in third place in the race to secure the bronze medal.