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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Felix Keith

Team GB claim dramatic 13th gold medal in men’s Finn class at Tokyo Olympics

Great Britain's Giles Scott recovered from a mistake on the start line to finish fourth and claim a dramatic gold medal in the men's Finn class sailing on Tuesday.

The defending champion made the worst possible start, coming off the start line in last place after setting off too early.

But, after turning around to avoid disqualification, Scott kept his cool to move through the field and finish at the head of a large group to finish inside the top five and beat Hungary and Spain to the gold medal.

His success made it two gold medals on the day - and 13 in total - for Team GB following Dylan Fletcher and Stuart Bithell’s equally dramatic win the men's 49er.

Scott came back from a poor start to finish fourth and win gold (Phil Walter/Getty Images)

Scott was already guaranteed a medal going into the double-points race, but it came down to the final 20 metres on the water.

The 34-year-old knew he needed a strong finish because Hungary’s Zsombor Berecz won the final race to add to the pressure.

His success continued Britain’s dominance of the Finn class, backing up his victory in Rio five years ago and following in the footsteps of Iain Percy (2000) and Sir Ben Ainslie (2004, 2008, 2012).

While it was a golden morning on the water in Japan, taking the total to 13 gold medals, Team GB are still trailing their gold medal tallies from the previous two Olympic Games.

At this stage, Great Britain had claimed 18 gold medals at London 2012 and 16 at Rio 2016.

Fletcher and Bithell were delighted with their last-gasp victory (Phil Walter/Getty Images)

That won't be on the minds of Scott or his team-mates Fletcher and Bithell, who produced a brilliant performance earlier in the day to beat New Zealand to gold.

The pair 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.

Fletcher and Bithell's biggest obstacle turned out to be Germany but, having taken the final turn in second, the British pair just edged over the finish line in front.

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