CHEERS from the crowd on the Nothe spurred Weymouth Olympian Paul Goodison on as he fought through the pain to complete his medal race.

The 34-year-old saw the chance to defend his Olympic Laser dinghy crown fade when he put his back out on the first day of racing.

Yet he battled through the pain to continue racing all week saying ‘You only get one chance at this event every four years. I’ve got to do what it takes’.

The Olympic gold medallist, who is originally from Rotherham, South Yorkshire but has lived in Wyke Regis, Weymouth for years with his Olympian girlfriend Saskia Clark , demonstrated true northern grit to get himself into the top 10 performing boats in the 49-boat fleet for the medal race.

He finished third in the double-points showdown to end his London 2012 Games on home waters seventh overall.

Australia’s Tom Slingsby claimed gold, while Cypriot Pavlos Kontides achieved his country’s first ever sailing medal – silver – and Swedish sailor Rasmus Mygren took bronze.

Goodison, who is known as Goody by his teammates, said: “I was obviously still in quite a lot of pain, I saw the physios before I went out, had acupuncture and took a lot of pills.

“I kind of had it in my head that it was a short race and if I pushed as hard as I could it would be over even quicker.

“I also wanted to perform for all the people who helped me get through the medal race and pieced me back together.

“I wanted to go out fighting and just to finish it off, we weren’t going to win medals but I wanted to put on a good performance.”

He praised his Australian rival saying ‘deserved to win gold’ and said like Slingsby he had felt the pain of finishing fourth at an Olympics only to make a comeback and claim victory four years later.

Goodison said: “I’ve got an MRI scan next week to see what needs to happen to get me fixed up.

“All I can do now is rest and hope it will go away without anything serious.

“The rest of the week is about supporting the rest of the team.”

The Weymouth star went down to the Nothe ticketed spectator site on Sunday and described the atmosphere as ‘absolutely amazing’.

He added: “It was very special to sail out there today and to sail fast and see the number of Union Jacks and hear the people screaming.

“It’s something I’ve never experienced before, it was really awesome and spurs you on when you’re hurting.”