Britain wins two sailing gold medals

BEIJING, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- Ben Ainslie of Britain won the Olympic Finn sailing class for the second straight Games Sunday.

Another British boat, crewed by three women in the Yngling class, also finished first on a rainy, windy day off the coast of Quingdao.

This was the first time in Olympic sailing history a so-called medal race had been run. Until this year, the final race of a regatta was treated like all the others. If it resulted in the worst score of the competition, a crew could throw that score out.

In these Olympics, however, the final race carried double points and could not be thrown out, thus adding pressure to the boats challenging for medals.

Ainslie had no problems though, winning the last of the nine races in the Finn class and claiming the gold medal with 23 points. American Zach Railey was a distant second with 45. Railey held on for the silver despite finishing sixth in the medal race.

In the Yngling class, Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson won the event in its first appearance in the Olympics. They also won the medal race and won the gold by seven points over a crew from the Netherlands.

Jonas Warrer and Martin Ibsen from Denmark won the 49er class gold.