Ben Ainslie has made it double gold for Britain at the Olympic sailing regatta with a convincing victory to underline his credentials as the nation's finest dinghy sailor of all time. Team GB dominated the first Medals Day at the port of Qingdao with the Yngling girls - Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson - bringing home the first gold of the regatta. Ainslie's fabulous victory - which gives him three consecutive golds and four Olympic medals in all - came less than three hours later.

It was a foul day in Qingdao with torrential rain and high winds only lightened by British success. Both Ainslie and the Yngling girls had been forced to wait 24 hours to contest their Medals Day after racing on Saturday was postponed because winds were too light, a stark contrast to the squall that drenched Qingdao for all of Sunday.

But British experience of the dreadful conditions plus sheer talent meant that nothing was left to chance. The three blondes in the Yngling boat faced a straight duel with the crew from the Netherlands, with a single point separating them going into the medals race decider, in which points count double. They got off to a shaky start but some smart tactical thinking helped the Britain crew pull alongside the Dutch and then take a lead that would become unassailable. The Dutch fell back to fifth place, leaving the overjoyed British trio to sail into their gold medal celebrations.

Ainslie, too, was involved in a straight shoot-out, knowing the only threat could come from Zach Railey, the American, in second overall place. Ainslie had carefully covered Railey's every move in the abandoned race of late Saturday and was ready to shadow his rival every step of the way when the medals race finally got underway for real. But Railey seemed more concerned with hanging onto silver while Ainslie sped off into the distance to win and erase any doubt about his gold medal position.

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The double victories mean TeamGB is already halfway to its target of four medals from the sailing regatta but these victories will no doubt give the team a huge fillip. Team members lined the breakwater to cheer Ainslie home to his historic gold medal, which propels him into sailing's pantheon. His achievement is now among the greatest in British Olympic history.