Scott is GB's sole ray of sunshine

A single shaft of heartwarming gold broke through the cold, grey, rain-heavy clouds over Weymouth Bay as Giles Scott turned master of the multi-medalled Ben Ainslie in the final race of the Skandia Sail for Gold Olympic regatta.

Scott has been working hard in the Finn singlehander while Ainslie's diary was crowded with Audi MedCup and America's Cup class sailing. The 2008 gold medallist slipped from second going into the medal-decider and had to be content with the "leather" fourth-place medal. Ed Wright was fifth.

There was disappointment for the windsurfer Nick Dempsey, coming back from injury, one of a quartet of bronze medallists in a British team that was top-scoring nation in China.

On its home waters, Britain topped the medal table with six, plus two in the Paralympic events, but Australia had the most golds, three and one, followed by France with two and one.

Nor was this easy for the public to watch. There were internet visitors from 118 countries but the broadband capacity on the Portland peninsula is low on horsepower. A major upgrade is promised and essential, especially as, though it is one of the Games events that promises free viewing, you would need strong binoculars to see it.

There was no Laser gold for Britain's Olympic champion, Paul Goodison, as the man in charge, Australia's Tom Slingsby, sat on Goodison and forced him all the way to the back of the fleet, which settled the matter. Goodison, paying for bad results in races six and seven, had to settle for silver. Hostilities resume at Hayling Island for their world championship in two weeks.

The British medal contenders in the 470 men were always too far adrift for the top spots, but Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell held on to bronze behind the French. It was bronze, too, in the high-performance 49er for Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes, but they did finish ahead of the European champions Chris Draper and Pete Greenhalgh, who were fifth.