Another sailing gold for team GB

7:01am Tuesday 19th August 2008

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Britain today won yet another gold medal at the Olympic Games.

Paul Goodison made up for the disappointment of just missing out on an Olympic medal four years ago as he claimed gold in the Laser class at the Olympic sailing regatta today.

The 30-year-old Solent University graduate finished fourth in Athens but ensured that he would not suffer similar heartbreak in China with a solid performance in the nine preliminary races that guaranteed him at least a spot on the podium heading into the medal race.

Goodison, who won the two Olympic test events in Qingdao in 2006 and last year, only needed to avoid finishing in last place in the 10-boat race to take the gold and opted in the light winds of the Yellow Sea to err on the side of caution.

He covered Sweden's Rasmus Myrgren, the only man who could have denied him the gold medal, from the start, leaving the two boats at the tail of the fleet.

The British sailor eventually finished ninth, 3 minutes and 29 seconds behind race winner Andrew Murdoch of New Zealand but comfortably in first place in the standings with 63 points, eight ahead of Slovenia's Vasilij Zbogar, who took the silver by finishing second behind Murdoch.

Italy's Diego Romero came home third to take the bronze while Myrgren's last place in the medal race meant that he finished the regatta empty-handed in sixth place.

Goodison's gold increased Great Britain's medal haul in the sailing regatta to four, matching their pre-Games target and putting the team total just one behind the five that they achieved in Sydney and Athens.

Ben Ainslie and the crew of Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson won gold for Britain in the Finn and Yngling classes respectively on Sunday with Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield adding a silver in the men's 470 class yesterday.