Britons set sail for silver

Britain's Ian Barker and Simon Hiscock give the thumbs up after clinching silver

Ian Barker and Simon Hiscocks won a silver medal in the 49er class - then claimed British sailing was on the up.

Thanks to a big boost in financial support, Barker believes the country is starting to reap impressive dividends.

"It's a fairly expensive game at this level and previous British Olympic sailors have done it on a shoestring," he said.

"You can't compete with fully funded people if you are doing that.

Better

"We can now and I think we will find that the results of the sailing team overall will be significantly better than they have been before."

The Brits, ranked 11th in the world and outsiders to claim a medal before the Olympics, secured silver by finishing third in the 16th and final race at Rushcutters Bay.

It's a fairly expensive game at this level and previous British Olympic sailors have done it on a shoestring

  Ian Barker

They were already assured of either silver or bronze and needed to finish within six places of the USA to claim second place overall.

Britain got off to a good start and were third early on behind Italy and Finland, who had already claimed the gold medal, with the Americans behind them.

But America cut through the field and worked their way up to first place to put the British crew under pressure.

Danger

At one point Britain fell back to sixth and were in danger on conceding silver to the fast-improving rivals.

"We were under a bit of pressure," admitted Hiscocks. "We were queued up to get a bronze and let's say if we had got that, then it would be like we were unsuccessful - like losing, so it just came down to sailing a safe route."

Barker, who has been sailing with Hiscocks for two years, added: "It was a bit tricky, very shifty winds at their angle and slightly different winds out there today.

"But you just had to keep your eyes open and keep a level head and the Americans did that a bit better than us."

Safe

As the race unfolded, Britain moved up to a safe fourth position behind Poland and Spain.

We were queued up to get a bronze and let's say if we had got that, then it would be like we were unsuccessful - like losing

  Simon Hiscocks

America went away from the pack to claim a convincing victory but it was not enough to lift them out of the bronze medal position.

Poland took second place 1:26 seconds behind and Britain finished third a further 10 seconds back.

The medal could be the beginning of a highly successful week for the British on the water. They occupy the gold leaders jerseys in three other Olympic fleets.

Star class duo Ian Walker and Mark Covell are also currently in the silver medal placing in their overall standings.