Sailors from the south win gold at the Tokyo Olympics

In the 49ers, Dorset based sailors Dylan Fletcher and Stuart Bithell went into the final medal race, where double points are awarded, in second, four points behind New Zealand's Peter Burling and Blair Tuke.

But victory for Fletcher and Bithell and third for New Zealand saw them claim the title.

And in the Finn class just a short time later, Giles Scott from Portsmouth also struck gold for Great Britain.

It is Britain's sixth successive title in the Finn class dating back to Iain Percy's success in Sydney 21 years ago.

Ben Ainslie then won three consecutive titles before Scott clinched his first gold in Rio.

Scott left himself a lot of work to do after fearing he had gone too early and deciding to go back across the start line.

He said: "I don't think I was over at the start but I played it super safe because that was the only way I could mess things up. I made the call to go quick and then I had quite a lot on.

"I made it by the skin of my teeth, it was properly to the wire, it was really tight. I tried to stay relaxed but I've never been involved in a boat race as close as that."

Shortly after Scott's victory, John Gimson and Anna Burnet won the silver medal in the mixed Nacra 17 class.

The debutants were guaranteed a medal going into the final race and finished safely in fifth to stay in second place behind Italians Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti.

Dylan Fletcher said: "I think it's been super close all week in racing and today showed off what it's been like. It was an intense race but it's mind-blowing to be sat here now being Olympic champions."

On the race to the line with the German boat, the 33-year-old added: "I thought we had it to be honest but I knew it was super touch and go.

"The other guys had right of way over us so we had to be careful to not get a penalty and time everything just right but Stu did an incredible job of making the boat go fast and we just nicked it at the end."

The medal race was postponed from Monday, when a lack of wind forced racing to be cancelled for the day.

Fletcher's fiancee, Charlotte Dobson, and her crewmate Saskia Tidey missed out on a medal in the women's 49er FX earlier, coming seventh in the medal race and sixth overall.