Awesome Ainslie clinches golden hat-trick with Finn victory

Ben Ainslie of Great Britain battles against the elements in the Finn class final

The 31-year-old 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 this afternoon to delay the start of the race for nearly two hours.

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.

Ainslie was thrilled that all of his efforts in recent years had paid off after
his success.

'I'm kind of speechless, it's been a difficult week,' he said. 'I
almost felt this medal race would never come.

'To finally get there, get some great breeze and to win the race after two or
three years of hard work means it's all been worth it. I'm a happy man.'

Ainslie also admitted he would like to attempt to add to his list of Olympic
achievements on home soil.

He added: 'It's pretty good going (to have four medals) but the draw of 2012,
on home waters, is huge.

'It's a long way away, we'll see. If I got the chance to be there and to do
well, I'd love to do it.'

Ainslie could have secured the gold 24 hours earlier as he was leading Railey
when the race was abandoned but he admitted that he was much happier to take the
title in the manner that he had.

'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,' he explained.

'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."

Ainslie is hoping that his win and the gold medal for the Yngling team of Sarah
Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson earlier in the day will help Team GB to kick
on and pick up more medals in the regatta.

'It's fantastic and I'm so pleased for the girls. I watched their race and
they sailed a really impressive race against the Dutch. That wasn't easy having
a boat one point behind you.

'That was an inspiration watching them and hopefully that's a good start for
the sailing team.

'Hopefully we can get into position in all the other classes and hopefully we
can make that count.'