KEY POINTS:
QINGDAO - New Zealand boardsailor Tom Ashley today won gold by the smallest of margins at the Olympic Games regatta off Qingdao.
Ashley had to beat Julian Bontemps of France and Nick Dempsey from Great Britain to take the gold, and did just that in finishing third in the medal race.
It was the third New Zealand gold medal of the Beijing Games and the first sailing gold since 1992, when boardsailor Barbara Kendall won off Barcelona.
Ashley's path to victory was made easier when Bontemps dropped his sail at the first mark.
He finished the regatta on 52 points, with Bontemps on 53.
An upset Bontemps was in tears after the finish, hurling his sunglasses into the sea.
Ashley was one point off the lead heading into the medal race, won by King Yin Chan of Hong Kong.
Shahar Zubari of Israel was second in the medal race, a result which gave him the bronze on 58 points.
Ashley was second to Chan around the first mark, 35 seconds clear of Bontemps. However, Bontemps came back hard, cutting the margin to just 12 seconds at the finish.
Briton Nick Dempsey, who had started the race tied with Ashley, had a nightmare race - he was overtaken by a delighted Zubari and finished seventh.
New Zealand has now won seven sailing golds at all Olympics, the first in 1956 when Peter Mander and Jack Cropp won the Sharpie class in Melbourne.
Ashley was the first New Zealander from outside Auckland's Kendall family to win a boardsailing gold.
Bruce Kendall won the first at Pusan in 1988, at the Seoul Olympics. Then his sister Barbara won in Barcelona and followed up with a silver at Atlanta in 1996, and a bronze in Sydney in 2000.
Aaron McIntosh won a boardsailing bronze in Sydney.
It was the third New Zealand gold medal in Beijing, and the ninth medal overall.
Valerie Vili in the shot put and Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell in rowing have also won gold for New Zealand.
NZ OLYMPIC MEDAL TALLY
Gold: Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell, rowing, double sculls.
Gold: Valerie Vili, athletics, shot put.
Gold: Tom Ashley, yachting, boardsailing.
Silver: Hayden Roulston, cycling, 4000m individual pursuit.
Bronze: Mahe Drysdale, rowing, single sculls.
Bronze: Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater, rowing, pairs.
Bronze: Sam Bewley, Hayden Roulston, Marc Ryan and Jesse Sergent, cycling, 4000m teams pursuit.
Bronze: Bevan Docherty, triathlon.
Bronze: Nick Willis, athletics, 1500m
- NZ HERALD STAFF, NZPA
