ODU's Anna Tunnicliffe sails to an Olympic gold medal

QINGDAO, China

Anna Tunnicliffe, who graduated from Old Dominion University in Norfolk in 2005, came from behind to win gold in the final for the women's Laser Radial class today, while Paul Goodison took Britain's third sailing gold of the 2008 Games in the men's Laser by protecting his overall lead with a back-of-the-fleet battle against his only real challenger.

The 2005 ODU graduate is the first Monarch to secure a medal at this year's Games.

Gintare Volungeviciute took Laser Radial silver for Lithuania's first Olympics sailing medal, while China's Xu Lijia took bronze, while in the men's class, Slovenia's Vasilij Zbogar won the silver and Italy's Diego Romero took the bronze.

Both the medal races were held in light and shifting winds at Qingdao, the sailing venue about 300 miles south of Beijing.

"It hasn't really hit," said British-born Tunnicliffe, 25, with a huge smile on her face and a huge American flag draped over her shoulders after the first U.S. sailing gold of the Beijing Games.

Tunnicliffe, who moved to the United States with her family at age 12 and later became a citizen, had enough points in nine preliminary races to assure her at least a medal after the final, which counts double. Early in the race, it looked like she would be lucky to get silver.

"It was a little too exciting," she told The Associated Press just after the finish. "I had a really bad start. It was very hard to focus when my competitors were gaining points on me."

At the end of the first of four legs in the medal race, she was No. 8 out of the 10 boats that made the final, and at end of the next leg she was next to last. Then, heading up on the third leg, she spotted a wind shift and set off on a different course than most of the fleet.

"I wasn't winning at that point and I saw this big left puff, and I went like, 'Here goes.'" I had to. I mean I was guaranteed a medal, and that meant a lot, so it was a risk worth taking," she said. "I went left and moved to the front of the fleet."

The gamble paid off. And the end of the third leg, she had climbed to No. 3, and gained one more spot on the final leg to finish second, behind Volungeviciute.

After taking silver, Volungeviciute seemed bewildered by the rush of media attention, telling Chinese officials, "I need to change clothes" and moving away from the reporters. "It's procedure," said the official, leading her back to the media zone.

"I worked very hard for this," she said. "I am also very happy to get the first Olympic sailing medal for my country."

The Chinese celebrated their country's third Olympic sailing medal by throwing Xu off the dock and into the water.