IAIN Percy and Andrew Simpson delivered the best possible end to the 2008 Olympic Sailing Regatta yesterday when they sailed to Britain's fourth sailing gold medal, winning in the Star class, to round off the best British sailing medal tally in the modern era of the sport.
The Sydney 2000 total of three golds, two silver is exceeded at this difficult Chinese venue which Team GB's Olympic Sailing Manager, Scot Stephen Park, troubled him enough to give him sleepless nights since he managed the team which collected two go
ld, one silver and two bronze in Athens.
"This is the strongest team we have ever had," said Park. "We could easily have won a medal in the men's windsurfing, we were only just off in the Tornado and at any other regatta you'd expect them to medal, so it is just a fantastic team, and there are plenty of people in the wings who aren't here and they are just waiting in the wings waiting. There is more to come. We are going to keep pushing, We know that cycling are going to keep pushing. Dave Brailsford (cycling team manager] was watching us today, and we watch the cycling in the evenings and we have similar philosophies on our programmes, and that is one of the reasons we are both doing so well."
From a shaky start to their campaign Percy and Simpson delivered yesterday.
The 2000 Finn class gold-medal winning helm chose to replace crew Steve Mitchell with his lifelong friend, Simpson, in January last year.
In driving rain and strong winds, reminiscent of home British waters, a thrilling medal race saw Percy and Simpson needing to beat their Swedish training partners of two years, Freddie Loof and Anders Ekstrom to win gold.
The British duo chased the Swedish crew around the first leeward mark three seconds behind, but Loof and Ekstrom twice failed to cover or pressurise the British duo.
On the second beat the Swedes made a tactical error, missing a big wind shift, which dumped them from third to last place in the 10-boat medal race. Finishing last meant the Swedes relinquished silver to Brazil's Robert Scheidt, world champion with his crew Bruno Parada, who beat Ben Ainslie to Laser gold in 1996.
