(dpa) - Great Britain took the first two sailing Olympic golds on offer at the Beijing Games Sunday as Ben Ainslie secured a third gold in succession in the men's individual finn race and Sarah Ayton's crew won in the yngling category.
Sailing in strong 30-knot winds, rain and poor visibility in Qingdao, Ainslee won with a total of 23 points at the end of the nine races with Zach Railey of the USA taking silver with 45 and Guillaume Florent bronze with 58 points.
Ainslee, who also took silver in Atlanta 1996 as well as gold in Sydney and Athens, hasn't been beaten in a finn category race since 2004. His win moves him level with Germany's Jochen Schuemann and Russia's Valentin Mankin in the all-time sailing medals list, one behind Paul Elvstrom of Denmark's tally of four golds.
In the women's yngling event, Ayton, who also won gold four years ago under Shirley Robinson, held her nerve with crew members Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson to defeat the Netherlands crew of Mandy Mulder, Annemieke Bes and Merel Witteveen.
The Greek crew of Sofia Bekatorou, Sofia Papadopoulou and Virginia Kravarioti took bronze ahead of Germany.