GB sailors Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell had to settle for silver

Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell of Great Britain compete in the men's 470 Sailing

GB sailors Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell had to settle for silver after falling short of their Australian rivals in the men's 470 medal race in Weymouth.

The British duo were already guaranteed at least a silver medal and went into the final race needing to beat the Australians with one boat between them to clinch gold.

The British led around the first mark, but Australia's Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page made ground downwind and stayed clear to clinch gold.

Argentina held onto third place to secure the bronze.

"To stand on an Olympic podium, it's not gold, but we're young boys and we'll be back," said helm Patience. "We're happy, happy boys. What a place, we're in paradise. It's so cool."

Bithell added: "We tried, we got the better of them at the start and just managed to sneak ahead, but unfortunately we sneaked ahead of the rest of the fleet.

"They sailed a fantastic race, they're worthy champions, but we're happy with second."

The GB crew kept close to the Australians in the pre-start and led the fleet off the line, rounding the top mark ahead of Croatia and Australia. At that point, gold was going to Britain, but Belcher and Page had better pace downwind and slipped past both boats to lead at the second mark.

Patience and Bithell tried to engage the Australians on the second upwind leg, to try to slow them and hope the chasing pack could affect their progress, but Croatia caught up and passed the Britons.