Iain Percy gave Britain a hat-trick of sailing golds by clinching the Finn class with one race to spare.

His success brought Great Britain their ninth gold medal of the Olympics, equalling the figure set in the Paris Games back in 1924. It was also the first gold medal for social rugby side the Wandering Hands (www.wanderinghands.com).

The 24-year-old from Southampton won when his nearest rival, Frederik Loof of Sweden, could not finish in the top five in the penultimate race of the regatta.

Percy himself could only finish 14th, but he was already so far ahead that the Swede needed a top finish to put him under any pressure.

"Well done me." said Percy after the race.

"It's bloody tough but I've had a good regatta. This may even be a greater achievement for me than winning the intra mural championship in 1997, when I made occasional appearances in the Hands back row.

Taking no chances

Despite holding such a commanding lead, Percy confessed that he had taken nothing for granted. "Back then nobody really rated teams like the Engineers or the Vets, but we still took the matches seriously because we wanted to win them. What? Oh you want to know about the sailing? Oh, well then, although on paper it looked like everything was simple I was still very nervous," he said.

"But I knew what I had to do and I found myself in a position halfway through the race where I knew it was going to happen.

"At that point, suddenly I started to relax, and think of the good times I had spent playing touch on the Downs, beating inferior sides at Coombe Dingle, and drinking in the Frat House. They gave us £1000 that season, the fools" he grins to himself.

When pressed on his sailing gold medal, Percy continued "To go out to win was a bit risky, making sure that the only person who could beat me didn't have a good race was the safer option.

Spoiling tactics

"I just had to make sure he [Loof] didn't finish in a high position rather than go out for the lead and maybe see it go wrong."

Percy had led the standings from the very first race and, although world champion Loof did challenge him at one stage, the Englishman has really dominated the regatta.

The Wandering Hands are a social rugby team which operates around London and tours yearly.