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Ainslie: third gold medal since 1996
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British sailor Ben Ainslie has won a gold medal in the Finn class for the second consecutive Games.
He now has a haul of three golds and one silver medal dating back to the Atlanta Games of 1996.
With nearest rival Zach Railey of the United States, the only man who could have denied him victory, finishing sixth, the 31-year-old topped the overall standings with 23 points, a massive 22 ahead of his nearest rival.
Ainslie had already secured at least silver entering the medal race and his 12-point lead over Railey meant that he only needed to finish within five places of the American to secure gold.
Light, unsettled wind conditions saw the race being abandoned on Saturday and postponed for 24 hours but strong winds and heavy rain descended on the waters off Qingdao to delay the start of Sunday's race for nearly two hours.
Dominance
Ainslie had opted to cover Railey in the light conditions of the abandoned race but the Briton threw out his match racing approach in the 16-knot winds to assert his dominance, rounding the first mark with a 12-second lead over France's Guillaume Florent.
He maintained his lead at the halfway point and was 20 seconds clear by the final mark with Railey well out of the running in sixth place.
It made the run to the finish a mere procession for Ainslie as he crossed 13 seconds ahead of Denmark's Jonas Hoegh-Christensen to win his fourth medal, surpassing Rodney Pattison as Britain's most successful Olympic sailor.
Railey took the silver while Florent pipped Sweden's Daniel Birgmark to the bronze after finishing fourth.
Pressure
"You know it's hard, the pressure you feel when the conditions are like that and I was very happy today when the wind was blowing and I could sail my own race a little bit more," Ainslie said.
"I would have taken it (the result yesterday) anyway, but I'm much happier to have gone out and beaten people like that and won the race, that's for sure.
"It's nice to have a really good breeze and to go out and use your fitness and your speed and sail a good race. It's a much more satisfying way to win."
