It was almost bound to happen after such a welter of celebration for Great Britain's sailors. Bryony Shaw achieved an historic first for the nation, taking a medal for Britain in the women's windsurfing event. But as she clutched her bronze medal yesterday and beamed a fantastic neon smile at Hazel and Brian, her waiting parents, and her boyfriend, Greg King, at one end of Qingdao's Olympic jetty, there was pain at the other, where Sarah Ayton threw her arms around Nick Dempsey to comfort her dejected fiancé.

Dempsey had started the day in second place in the men's RS:X windsurfing class, confident and inspired by his future wife, who had recorded the first gold medal of the Olympic regatta, along with Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson, the celebrated Yngling crew.

Dempsey even allowed the silver and bronze to slither from his grasp as he struggled in the capricious conditions, the wind blowing first one way and then the next. He finished what would have been a creditable fourth in another year. But the bronze-medal winner from Athens in 2004 is part of what could be, by today, the most successful Olympic sailing team launched from Britain. Which just made the lack of a medal hurt even more.

“It is pretty hard to take,” Dempsey said. “It was quite an emotional situation with Sarah when I came in. But it's not the end of the world. I am looking forward to 2012 and Weymouth, where the Olympic sailing will be. To win a medal at home would be the best thing in life.”

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Perhaps Dempsey just needed a lucky charm, like Shaw. She was proudly wearing the Blue Peter badge, given to her by the BBC children's programme presenters, as she stepped down from the podium medal ceremony, already planning her assault on the 2012 London Olympics. This was the woman who learnt to windsurf on holiday in the south of France at the age of 9. She was a natural - except she could not quite figure out how to turn around and found herself sailing out to sea towards Africa and had to be rescued. Not exactly an event to be rewarded with a badge.

But the lesson was well learnt and turning looked a speciality yesterday when Marina Alabau, of Spain, tried to barge her way through at the reach mark. The tiny Shaw did not buckle. Just 5ft 4in and not quite nine stone wringing wet, the Londoner tucked up tight and kept the Spaniard out of the race and, as a result, out of the medals, as her opponent was forced to take a penalty for foul play.

“I know the rules and I know how to be aggressive, so there was no way through,” Shaw said. “I started this sport as a hobby but when I got on to the Olympic programme, I got this huge desire to win. This is a dream come true but now the planning starts for 2012. To win in Weymouth would be the most fantastic thing of all time.”

The haul of three golds, a silver and a bronze has surpassed the four-medal target set at the start of the Games and still Team GB are not finished. Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson have spent a week grinding through the still waters of Fushan Bay in their two-handed Star-class dinghy expecting nothing less than a medal today.