Two golds for British sailors

Today was the best day ever for British sailing in the Olympics, with two gold medals confirmed and two other competitors sure of medals, both of which could be gold.

Shirley Robertson won gold in the Europe, the women's singlehander class, and Ben Ainslie took top honours in the Laser, the open singlehander. Coming on top of the silver already won by Ian Barker and Simon Hiscocks in the 49er, this is an unprecedented haul for a British Olympic sailing team that usually returns without a medal.

Robertson (32), whose parents live near Stirling, was the first success of the day, clawing back from a near disastrous first race to clinch gold by two points from her longtime Dutch rival, Margreit Matthysse. Matthysse won both of the day's races, but the Scottish woman's earlier consistent performance meant that she needed only to finish fourth in the last race to take the gold medal. She came in third, moving up two places in the fourth and final round of a course just to the east of the Harbour Bridge. Ainslie (23), from Lymington, Hampshire, was determined to improve on the silver medal he won in Savannah in 1996, against the same rival as he faced today, Robert Scheidt of Brazil. This time Ainslie had the advantage coming into the last race and the contest between them was on from the moment the warning gun was fired.

The British sailor proceeded to drive Scheidt back down the fleet, because a 22nd place in this race for the Brazilian would give Ainslie the gold. Scheidt finished 22nd, giving Ainslie gold by a single point. Ainslie was carried shoulder high in his boat from the water's edge to the dinghy park by his fellow Team GB sailors.

There will be more sailing medals for Britain tomorrow. Iain Percy leads the Finn class by a 20-point margin after today's ninth fleet race and is guaranteed at least silver.

And Ian Walker and Mark Covell, in second place in the Open Star class and only five points behind Brazilian pair Torben Grael and Marcelo Ferreira, are guaranteed at least bronze.