After winning a silver medal, Patience reveals he is content to wait for gold in Rio . . .

Saturday 11 August 2012

LUKE Patience was gracious in conceding defeat to arch rival Mathew Belcher – but he insists Olympic silver in Weymouth can be the platform to his own prolonged dominance.

Stuart Bithell, left, and Scotland's Luke Patience, celebrate winning a silver medal on the overturned hull of their 470 boat. Picture: Getty Sport

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Patience, along with his crew in the 470 boat Stuart Bithell, spent almost every race dicing with Australian pairing Belcher and Malcolm Page, the world champions for the past three years. Ahead of the medal race, delayed by a day due to light winds, just four points separated them with Patience and Bithell needing to finish two places ahead to claim gold.

As it was Belcher and Page battled to second to take the gold their nation expected while Patience and Bithell were fourth to consolidate the silver that was the least they could achieve.Patience and Bithell had been so intent on gold, one supected congratualtions might get short shrift. "We did not come to get second, but we are happy," said Patience. "We sailed the regatta of our lives. Congratulations are okay. It will do for now. There's Rio yet to come."And world championships? "They don't mean anything now," said the Helensburgh man. "A world medal sits there for a year. Olympic medals are forever. It's been a great ride, and I am sure there is more to come. We are going to celebrate this in outrageous fashion."Theri Australian rivals "were there to be taken," he said. "We did all we could."They were penalised for working the boat too hard in the final run. "We had to push the envelope. We knew we had to do something. We knew it had gone then."It did not affect the outcome. "We didn't let ourselves down, didn't do anything stupid. They were just slightly better than us. They have been like that this year, more dominant. Before, we beat them as often as they beat us."Their tunnel visioned intensity is almost frightening.Luke was first in a boat at the age of three. "That was at Helensburgh, in a 420, but I didn't start properly until I was about seven."His family links with lifeboats and fishing boats in the north east have been well documented, but he revealed that his granfather, John, was bombed out of his boat in the same harbour during the Second World War. "He was on a supply vessel here in Portland harbour, where the Olympic regatta was sailed. He was bombed by the Germans, and was sunk, and here we are down here all these years later. "He died four years ago. It would have been nice if he had seen this. He was always very proud," he added.

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After winning a silver medal, Patience reveals he is content to wait for gold in Rio . . .

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