They clinched the gold medal after a sail-off against Western Australia.

 

"We hoped we would win, and we would have been disappointed if we didn’t, but it was looking close there at the end,” said Ben Saxton, 16-year-old from Baldock who was sailing alongside his twin brother Tim. 

 

Of the five races, Britain secured the first two races, Western Australia grabbed the third, and the fourth was a tough race, eventually going to the Brits.

 

“We didn’t think we would win it, but we didn’t give up, we kept saying to ourselves, it’s not over til it’s over,” 16-year-old Clair Lasko from Thame said.

 

WA took a commanding lead in the fourth race sailing in first, second, and third position. It looked as if a deciding fifth race would be on the cards but, “everything went wrong,” said sailor Peter Nicholas.

 

“We’re pretty disappointed. We are happy we got into the top two, and it’s better than third place, but I’m disappointed it didn’t go to the last race.”

 

New Zealand, who was leading the pack in first place at the start of today’s races finished in third place, beating New South Wales in a race-off to take home the bronze medal.

 

Britain will celebrate their gold medal victory by throwing their coach in the water and shaving a stripe in his eyebrow.