PORTLAND'S Olympic contender Alison Young admitted her first Olympics had been a ‘great experience’ despite narrowly missing out on a shot at the podium.

The 25-year-old completed her London 2012 regatta with an impressive fourth place in yesterday’s double-points medal race, to finish fifth overall in the 41-strong Laser Radial dinghy fleet.

Debutant Young, who began her Olympic adventure last Monday, was one of the final sailors to be selected for Team GB in May.

Young, of Fortuneswell , continued to prove her credentials throughout her Olympics event with a string of impressive results, including a hat-trick of second places midway through the regatta.

Sadly Saturday’s race nine disqualification put her out of medal contention when she was penalised for jumping the starting pistol.

Young managed to bounce back in her second race of the day and finish fourth, leaving her fifth overall, but at 18 points off bronze medal position, her medal chances had slipped away.

Now Young is already looking ahead four years. She said: “I will definitely be going onto to Rio. This Olympics has been a great experience and lots of lessons have been learnt to take forwards.

“It’s just cutting down a few of the errors and making every little bit count so I’ll be working on that.

“Obviously I’m disappointed with the end result but it has been a great experience.”

Young now intends to stay in Weymouth and Portland and cheer on her fellow Team GB sailors.

The Laser Radial class was won by China's Lijia Xu, with Marit Bouwmeester of the Netherlands claiming silver and Belgium’s Evi Van Acker the bronze medal.

Irish sailor Annalise Murphy, who had been leading the fleet all week, finished fifth in the medal race and fourth overall, just outside the medal spots.

The Olympic Sailing Regatta, which began on Sunday July 29, ends this Saturday.

Visit rya.org.uk/london2012