Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson finished Britain's dazzling Olympic regatta with a record fourth gold medal in Qingdao today after a thrilling climax to the Star class. Winchester's Percy, the Finn champion in Sydney in 2000, and Simpson, a 31-year-old Chertsey-born sailor, were left in ecstasy after sailing to Team GB's 17th gold medal in all at the Games following an astonishing finish to their keelboat medal race, a contest which was breathlessly described by another of the British champions, Ben Ainslie, as the closest that he had ever seen.

The British pair rescued the gold after a poor start which initially saw them trailing their Swedish rivals round the first mark and, lying in sixth place just one spot behind, it seemed as if the title was going to be beyond them - but they responded brilliantly with Ainslie proclaiming: "This is a special moment - the last medal race of the Games and what these guys have done is unbelievable!"

Going into the final race, Percy and Simpson knew their job was to finish ahead of the Swedish couple of Fredrik Loof and Anders Ekstrom, and not finish lower than sixth place, while an eye also had to be kept on the great Brazilian sailor Robert Scheidt, lurking in third place.

But after an impressive start by the Britons in what is considered the blue riband event of the regatta, the Swedish boat caught them and reached the first mark in the lead, with the destiny of the gold seemingly in their control.

Yet Percy grasped the initiative sailing downwind and reached the second buoy in second place, with the anxious Swedes just behind.

The object then, with the also well-placed Brazilian contenders seemingly out of the hunt, was to match race their rivals, keeping them at bay at close quarters. In the choppy waters of the bay and in desperately miserable conditions, Percy and the unsung Sherborne-based Simpson used all their great experience to prevail in the final thrilling combat downwind to the finish.

The celebrations began as it began to dawn that the British had finished fifth, four places ahead of Sweden, to take victory overall by six points. Brazil took the bronze.

The triumph meant the sailing team, based 500 miles from Beijing, had topped even their glorious performance of Sydney 2000 when they won three golds.

This time, they took six medals altogether.

There were golds for Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb, Pippa Wilson in the Yngling class, Ainslie in the Finn, Paul Goodison in the Laser while Joe Glanfield and Nick Rogers claimed silver in the 470 and Bryony Shaw took bronze in the RS:X windsurfing yesterday.

With the team having eclipsed the team's modest pre-Games target of four, the sailing manager Stephen Park admitted living up to past glories increased the pressure on his squad, but was delighted so many sailors delivered.

He said: "Our success at the last two Olympics has certainly given us some feelings of pressure but equally, we know that we have some fantastic sailors who have put together very strong campaigns."

There was another fine performance from Liam McMillan and Will Howden to win the Tornado medal race but it was too little too late from the British pair who finished sixth overall, a rare disappointment with Britain ruling the waves again.