Silver medal sailors target Rio

Aug 10 2012

Sailing duo Luke Patience, from Aberdeen, and Stuart Bithell, from Rochdale, have expressed their delight after securing Olympic silver but insisted they will be hunting gold in four years' time.

The pair trailed the Australian team going into Friday's final race in the highly competitive 470 dinghy class and were unable to pull off the result that would have seen them capture top spot.

But there was no regret from the Brits after crossing the finish line at Weymouth behind Aussies Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page.

"It's great," said Scotland's Patience. "It's just so good, it's been three, four years hard work together, it's been 15 years up there (his head) and we're here standing on an Olympic podium."

He told the BBC: "It's not gold but there's plenty of time. We're young boys and we'll be coming back and we'll mean business next time round yet again."

Patience, from Aberdeen, and Bithell teamed up three years ago. Their silver at the 2011 Worlds in Perth, Australia helped them secure their berth in the Olympic team.

Born in the same month they both started sailing at a young age, though hundreds of miles apart.

Patience grew up in Rhu near Helensburgh on the Firth of Clyde. The 26-year-old helmsman, who has a pre-race superstition of tasting the water he is due to sail in the night before, started racing competitively when he was nine, participating in regattas around Scotland.

By the age of 18 he was an international competitor across a range of classes.

"I think there's something special about Mother Nature and the ocean," he said in the build-up to the Games. "It's something to be massively respected. I couldn't see myself doing anything else in my life but involve myself in doing something with the ocean."