Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign (pictured) were Britain's star performers, picking up silver in the 49-er event – their first success together.

"We had a lot to lose but we just went through our processes and it all paid off," said Fletcher afterwards.

Sign added: "We're pretty chuffed at putting the other Brits back in their places – it's a big confidence boost."

Also in the medal places were Nic Asher and Elliot Willis and Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell who scored silver and bronze respectively in the 470 men's class.

Giles Scott had earlier taken silver in the Finn class and Paul Goodison bronze in the Laser.

The 49er medal race, due to start at 9am, had finally got under way late morning.

With gold already assured for Australia's Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen, Fletcher and Sign had to protect their silver medal position, while also defend from a number of crews - including four of their own teammates - who were close on points behind them and pushing for the medal spots.

The British duo, who finished fifth at the 2010 World Championships, sailed a near perfect race, leading from start to finish to claim their first ever podium finish.

With five British 49ers in the top ten at the 2010 World Championships, the battle is on for qualification to the one British berth in the class for 2012.

Britain's John Pink-Rick Peacock finished in fifth overall, with Chris Draper-Peter Greenhalgh seventh, Dave Evans-Ed Powys ninth and Stevie Morrison-Ben Rhodes tenth.

The 470 men's and women's fleets had an early departure from the dock this morning, as with only three fleet races sailed they needed one more in order to make a medal race possible.

They managed just that, with Patience and Bithell winning the men's fleet race and Asher and Willis second to see the British crews in overall first and third going into the medal race.



Patience and Bithell (pictured) were unable to hold on to their lead in the fickle medal race breeze, finishing tenth in the 10-boat finale.

But it was still enough to hand them bronze, while Asher and Willis sailed consistently throughout the medal race to push them into the silver medal spot.

Willis was pleased with their podium finish after a difficult week of racing conditions and was happy that they've learned lots about the venue ahead of next year's World Championships.

"Primarily we're here as a training exercise for next year," he said.

"We did two weeks of training before the regatta so we're quite happy we've sailed in the conditions that you normally would see here.

"We've learnt a lot about our kit and the wave conditions and things like that so we're looking forward to it."

The 470 women's teams of Penny Clark-Katrina Hughes and Sarah Ayton-Saskia Clark finished fifth and eighth respectively, while Bryony Shaw was unable to fight her way into the podium spots in the RS:X women's windsurfing event.

She finished fifth overall, while medal racing for the RS:X men's event was abandoned, leaving Nick Dempsey unable to improve on his fifth place, and Elliot Carney in tenth.

"We've had a great time here in Fremantle," said Royal Yachting Association (RYA) Olympic Manager Stephen Park.

"The conditions have been very difficult, particularly for the race management in terms of racing and just in terms of getting experience in the conditions that we're expecting here next year.

"We did have some of that in the training period in the couple of weeks running up to the racing so we're going to go home happy that we've learned lots about Fremantle and have prepared well in terms of the World Championships in 2011.

"It's been great to see some new talent coming through - Dylan Fletcher and Alain Sign winning their first medal.

"That's a great performance by them and it's going to give them great confidence going in to next year."


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