MORE GOLD FOR OUR SAILORS
Star class winners Percy and Simpson make it five
SAILING heroes Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson claimed Britain's FOURTH Olympic gold in the Qingdao waters this morning.
Team boss Stephen Park celebrated British sailing's finest Olympics in a century with a dunking in the Qingdao waters as the regatta came to an end.
The British medals haul surpassed the five medals won in Sydney and Athens and matched the record of four gold, one silver and one bronze achieved in London a hundred years ago.
Park said: "It's absolutely fantastic, I'm over the moon with the medals and the gold for the Stars is the icing on the cake.
"It's a huge relief that we've actually managed to deliver against our target. I'm really pleased that Great Britain is having a fantastic Olympic Games and we're playing our part in that.
"We're working hard to try to keep up with my good mate Dave Brailsford and all of the cyclists and David Tanner and the rowing team.
"They've done a pretty good job I think and the other sports are making a sterling effort and Britain is getting stronger and stronger in all its sports moving towards 2012.
"The question now is what are we going to do moving towards 2012 with the British team across all sports and that's certainly going to be a very interesting discussion when we get home."
Britain have now topped the medal standings in sailing for three consecutive Olympics and Park promised that there would be no let-up for Weymouth in four years' time.
"The aim is to win in every class and we'll have 10 opportunities, rather than the 11 we've got here, when we get to 2012 but rest assured we will be going into that regatta with people that we believe are capable of winning in every single discipline.
"That will be the goal, just as it was here. Some of those will come through and some of them won't but that's certainly the aim."
Percy and Simpson finished fifth in the medal race but managed to surge past Sweden's Fredrik Loof and Anders Ekstrom, who dropped from first to third in the standings after finishing the race in last place.
That result allowed Brazil's Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada, who came in third, to pip the Swedes for the silver medal.
The British pair trailed two points behind the Swedes at the start of the double-points medal race and only needed to finish ahead of their rivals to snatch the gold.
Percy said: "It's more special because I'm doing it with my best mate of 25 years. To cross the line after all we've been through it just adds so much more to it."
Simpson revealed the pair had been confident about delivering another gold to the British haul.
He said: "Basically we knew we'd win this time because we wanted it more than anyone else.
"It's a fantastic feeling. There's no words to describe it."
