Britain's Luke Patience and Stuart Bithall finished with Olympic Silver in the men's 470 after giving it their best shot, leading round the first mark in gold position, but the Aussie pair, Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page came back on the run to take control.
Not beaten yet Patience and Bithall came back as the wind increased on the beat and caught the Aussies, forcing a tacking duel, during which the rest of the fleet caught them up. Croatia rounded the final top mark ahead of Australia and Argentina with the British pair in fourth.
Patience and Bithall went wide to get clear wind but then picked up a penalty for pumping and after the penalty turn it was all over. Croatia led round the bottom mark and accross the finish line with Australia in second confirming their Gold, Argentina in third to take the bronze. Patience and Bithall crossed in fourth with the Silver.
470 Men - Final positions after medal race
Gold AUS Mathew Belcher / Malcolm Page 22.0
Silver GBR Luke Patience / Stuart Bithell 30.0
Bronze ARG Lucas Calabrese / Juan de la Fuente 63
4 ITA Gabrio Zandonã / Pietro Zucchetti 72.0
5 NZL Paul Snow-Hansen / Jason Saunders 86.0
6 CRO Sime Fantela / Igor Marenic 87.0
7 FRA Pierre Leboucher / Vincent Garos 90.0
8 POR Álvaro Marinho / Miguel Nunes 93.0
9 AUT Matthias Schmid / Florian Reichsteaedter 107.0
10 SWE Anton Dahlberg / Sebastian Östling 123.0
G New
10 August 2012 12:51