Hampshire's golden medallion men arrived back at Heathrow this morning after becoming one of the most successful Olympic sailing squads in the history of the Games.

With the exception of gold medallist Shirley Robertson who stayed on in Sydney for a holiday before returning to Cowes, the cream of British sailing emerged from their Sydney flight bleary-eyed but still wearing the proud grins that beamed across the globe after they received three Olympic gold and two silver medals.

Rule Britannia was the anthem that rang out around Sydney Harbour after Lymington's Ben Ainslie and Winchester's Iain Percy were crowned the best in the world. The celebrations will continue in the King and Queen pub in Hamble tonight when the two Ians - Walker and Barker - show off their silver gongs to local friends and supporters.

Ben Ainslie beamed: "It feels great to be home. It's started to sink in about just how big an achievement the whole British effort winning all those medals was.

"It will hopefully give British sailing a massive boost and I'll be looking to carry on hopefully in a British America's Cup campaign," he added before rushing off to meet up with his Swedish girlfriend.

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