BRITAIN’S amazing weekend continued as they earned another eight medals – including four more golds in Beijing.

The tally now stands at 11 golds – two more than in Athens four years ago and the same number as Sydney in 2000 – and 25 medals overall, three behind Sydney and five behind Athens.

First to strike gold for Britain were the Yngling trio of Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson in the sailing in Qingdao.

Their bid for gold had been held up by a lack of wind on Saturday, but there were no such problems yesterday, and the British crew picked the perfect time to win for the only time in the event to secure the gold and ensure Holland had to settle for silver.

There was also sailing glory for Ben Ainslie, who won gold for the third Games running by winning the Finn class.

The 31-year-old had started his race on Saturday only for it to be abandoned because of a lack of wind, and needed just to see off the challenge of the USA’s Zach Railey to claim gold.

And he did so in style, winning the final race by 13 seconds to secure gold – and a place in the record books as Britain’s most successful Olympic sailor.

Gold in the lightweight double sculls was the pick of three medals on the final day of the rowing regatta. Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter – unbeaten all season – produced a superb race and were comfortable winners ahead of Greece.

They were followed on to the podium at Shunyi Park by the women’s quadruple sculls, who won silver after being pegged back by China in the closing stages, and the men’s eight who also finished second, beaten by Canada despite closing towards the end of the race.

The day’s other gold went to cyclist Rebecca Romero, as she beat team-mate Wendy Houvenaghel in the women’s individual pursuit.

Romero won by more than three seconds and went into the record books as the first British woman to win medals in two different Olympic sports, having won silver in rowing in Athens.

The final medal of the memorable weekend went to Louis Smith, who became Britain’s first male individual gymnastics winner for 100 years by claiming bronze in the pommel horse.

Smith had qualified fifth but stepped up his performance for a superb medal to complete a superb haul for Britain over the weekend of 17 medals.

On the track, Christine Ohuruogu powered through to the final of the 400metres by winning her heat.

But Nicola Sanders – runner-up to Ohuruogu in the World Championships last year – failed to qualify, as did Lee McConnell.

Sarah Claxton qualified as one of the fastest losers for the 100m hurdles semi-finals, while Tasha Danvers is also safely through in the 400m hurdles.

Earlier, Paula Radcliffe insisted she would aim to compete in the marathon in the London Olympics in four years time after coming home 23rd.

The world record holder, who has been hampered by injury all season and although she briefly stopped towards the end of the race, carried on to finish the course.

Asked if she would have another go in London, she said: “Absolutely. I’ll be 38. The marathon is one event where you can keep going and maybe one year I’ll get some luck and have a good build-up.

“The support I’d have in London would be great too.

“I knew I was pushing it to come here. But I would have done all that hard work for nothing if I hadn’t got to the finish line. I am still keeping my fingers crossed for 2012.”

Mara Yamauchi was the top Brit in the marathon in sixth, Liz Yellings finished three behind Radcliffe after suffering a cracked rib in an early fall.

The cycling team continued their domination of events at the Laoshan Velodrome by appearing to be on course for three more gold medals. Victoria Pendleton reinforced her status as favourite for the women’s sprint by qualifying fastest with the only sub-11 second run to set a new Olympic record, before Chris Hoy and Jamie Staff qualified first and second fastest for the men’s event.

And then the team pursuit quartet of Bradley Wiggins, Paul Manning, Ed Clancy and Geraint Thomas smashed the world record by more than a second on their way to setting up a final against Denmark.

Rowing’s lightweight men’s four and women’s eight – the latter decimated by illness – both failed to further add to the medal tally. The women’s eight were dealt a blow before they started as Natasha Howard and Alison Knowles both pulled out of the race, and their replacements Alice Freeman and Louisa Reeve were unable to help them finish higher than fifth in the final.

Paul Goodison could be Britain’s third sailing medallist after moving three points clear at the top of the Laser standings after a seventh place finish in race six.

Nick Dempsey remained in contention for a medal in the RS:X men’s windsurfing category, lying in fourth place.

The men’s hockey team needed a late equaliser from Matt Daly to earn a 1-1 draw in bruising encounter with Canada.

Ken Pereira scored for Canada, who were guilty of borderline strong-arm tactics throughout the clash. Britain’s Jonathan Hammond missed out on a spot in the final of the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions after finishing down in 42nd place in qualification.

He hit 1148 out of the 1200 targets available to him, with the stand the weakest of his three positions and he ended 22 shots away from a place in the final.

Jeanette Kwayke was a pleasing sixth in the women’s 100m final in which all of the medals went to Jamaica.

Kawyke performed well to reach the final – the first British woman to do so in 24 years – and put up a good fight in it from lane nine, but was ultimately unable to get into medal contention.

Liverpool’s Andy Baddeley booked his place in the 1,500m final after finishing third in his heat and will hope to be in medal contention.

All three of Britain’s men’s high jumpers made it through to the final of the competition in tonight’s qualifying.

Germaine Mason and Martyn Bernard both cleared 2.29m – the highest anyone cleared in the competition, while 2.25m was enough for Tom Parsons to ensure he also reached tomorrow’s final.