There was no way Giles Scott could be a proper Briton and keep a stiff upper lip as he closed in on winning the gold medal in the Finn class in the Rio 2016 sailing regatta. Approaching the finish line, "I just found myself welling up in tingles as it slowly dawned on me what I had done," Scott said Sunday.

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"I wouldn't put myself down as the emotional sort, but I had a little cry to myself, which I'd like to think I don't do that often. Just the emotions that kind of end up coming out of you in that situation, you can't really prepare yourself for."

As he crossed the finish line, Scott put his head in his hands for a moment. He stood, raised both arms in triumph and shouted for joy. He sat down again, head in hands.

Scott breaks down after winning gold (Photo: Clive Mason/Getty Images)

Scott came in under the enormous pressure of being heir apparent to Sir Ben Ainslie, who was knighted a few months after winning the Finn gold at the London Games. It was Ainslie's fourth straight gold and fifth games medal overall, making him the most successful Olympic sailor ever.

Rio 2016 sailing schedule and results

Scott responded, clinching the gold with the medals race still to be sailed on Tuesday. He still needs to sail that race before they put the medal around his neck, hoist the Union Flag and play 'God Save the Queen' on Flamengo Beach, with Sugarloaf Mountain in the background.

"I've managed to sail more consistently than anyone else at the top of the fleet and it's just landed me in this kind of brilliant situation where I've got the points cap for the medal race and it's such a privileged situation to be in," Scott said.

He finished eighth and second in the final two races of the 10-race preliminary series, for 32 points. It's the fifth straight Olympics a Brit has won the Finn.

Vasilij Zbogar of Slovenia is second with 56, Ivan Gaspic of Croatia third with 69 and American Caleb Paine of San Diego and Max Salminen of Sweden tied for fourth at 74.

Scott said he and his coach, Matt Howard had a plan to race flat-out and "not go soft in any regattas we went to" in the build-up toward Rio. "That approach is great but it does put a target on your back," he said.

Scott said the only low point was that his father, John, broke his knee in a bicycle accident and wasn't able to come to Rio. "He's gutted, Scott said.

Windsurfing gold for France

Also on Sunday (14 August), Charline Picon of France won the gold medal in women's windsurfing, with Peina Chen of China taking silver and Stefaniya Elfutina of Russia the bronze.

Peina Chen, Charline Picon of France and Stefaniya Elfutina celebrate on the podium following the Women's RS:X class medal race at the Marina da Gloria (Photo: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

In men's windsurfing, Pierre le Coq of France won the bronze medal. Dorian van Rijsselberghe of the Netherlands already had clinched his second straight gold medal and Nick Dempsey of Great Britain had clinched his second straight silver. Van Rijsselberghe. celebrated with the Dutch royal family on a nearby yacht shortly after the finish.

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