Last updated on .From the section Olympics

Giles Scott sealed gold in sailing's Finn class to give Great Britain their fifth successive Olympic title in the event.

The Weymouth-based 29-year-old succeeds Sir Ben Ainslie, who won three previous titles, and emulates Iain Percy in 2000.

"It's not sunk in yet," he told BBC Radio 5 live.

"It's so hard to describe it. You work so hard for so long for just one week in your life."

Scott's victory gave Great Britain their 17th gold medal of Rio 2016 - he will now join Ainslie's 2017 America's Cup team.

The Briton missed out on a place in the London 2012 Finn competition to Ainslie after his rival dominated the regattas leading up to the Games.

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Read Giles Scott on his London 2012 heartache

"I get asked a lot about London," he added. "I didn't like not qualifying, but off the back of it came a desire to win. This moment justifies everything."

Scott took an unassailable lead going into Tuesday's medal race, having won three of the 10 races in the opening series.

He came second in the final race and finished with a total score of 36 points. Slovenia's Vasilij Zbogar took silver with 68 points and USA's Caleb Paine, who won the final race, finished third with 76 points.

"It's an amazing achievement for Giles. He really has been totally dominant," Ainslie told BBC South Today.

"To win gold without having to even compete in the medal races is rare."

Finn competition scoring rules (Source: Olympic MyInfo) Opening series (10 races): A "low point" scoring system is used, whereby the winner of each race is awarded one point, second place is awarded two points, and so on. The 10 crews with the lowest overall score advance to the medal race. Medal race: Scores for the medal race will be weighted. Points are doubled (ie two points for first boat, four points for second boat, and so on) and added to the series score.

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