Falmouth's Ben Ainslie has become the greatest Olympic sailor of all time after winning his fourth gold medal at the London 2012 Olympics.

Ainslie finished ninth in the medal race, but crucially one place ahead of his gold medal rival Jonas Hogh Christensen from Denmark.

Ainslie went into the race knowing that if he could finish ahead of Hogh Christensen, he would almost certainly be picking up gold. There was the danger that the Netherlands Pieter-Jan Postma could overtake both of them, but to do this he would need to finish in the top two and see Ainslie and Hogh Christensen at the back of the field in 9th and 10th.

The race started off with Ainslie tracking the Danish sailor ahead of the start line. However PJ Postma, in a bid to upset Ainslie, got in the way of the British sailor seconds before the start.

It saw Ainslie on the back foot early on and trailing Denmark's Hogh-Christensen. However, crucially Ainslie headed out to the right hand side of the course, as the Dane went left.

Ainslie found some strong winds and reached the bottom mark in fifth place, ahead of the Netherlands and Denmark.

Ainslie then had a superb downward leg towards the bottom mark and rounded just behind race leader Jonathan Lobert, of France.

However, Ainslie made a decision not to try and win the race, but instead track Hogh Christensen. They both went to the right side of the course again on the second upward leg.

It didn't pay off for either sailor as they fell to the back of the fleet, but crucially for Ainslie he was still a place ahead of Hogh Christensen, in ninth, as he rounded the third mark.

As they rounded the fourth mark, Hogh Christensen tacked to the left side of the course, in a bid to get away from Ainslie. But the Brit was having none of it and followed the Danish sailor once more.

It seemed Ainslie had the battle under control, but on the upward leg to the fifth mark PJ Postma made significant gains and rounded in third place.
All of a sudden it looked as though Postma might take gold. He just needed to get ahead of New Zealand's Dan Slater, in second, to overtake Ainslie and Hogh Christensen in the overall standings.

On the final downward leg Ainslie had all but beaten his Danish rival, sitting a good 50-metres in front of him, but the attention had now switched to the battle between Slater and Postma.

Thankfully for Ainslie though Postma got caught up in trying to catch Slater and dropped to fifth place as he rounded the final mark.

It meant Ben could cruise home to delight the thousands of fans who had come out to watch him win gold in Weymouth.