British 49er sailors win silver

Brotherton (left) and Asquith are back together after a gap of six years

British pair Paul Brotherton and Mark Asquith won silver in the 49er class European Championships in Croatia.

The duo were competing in their first event together for six years after reforming their partnership.

Brotherton coached Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson to Olympic gold in the Yngling class in Beijing.

"It's a great start to our campaign, but testing and learning is really all this week has been about for us," said the 43-year-old Brotherton.

Asquith, 29, added: "I'm really pleased, considering we came here just to assess our training and with no outcome in mind.

"There are plenty of places where can still improve and work on, but it's great to know that Paul and I are still there."

Of the 18 races held over the six-day event in the Adriatic, Brotherton and Asquith picked up just four scores outside the top 10.

"The great thing about having such a strong squad of 49er sailors in Britain is that we were pretty confident from the training we'd done with them that we weren't slow and that we could keep pace," added Brotherton.

Italian brothers Pietro and Gianfranco Sibello won gold with the Austrian crew of Nico Delle Karth and Nikolaus Resch, who Brotherton coached up until the World Championship in July, in third.

John Pink and Rick Peacock, the World Championship silver medallists, were the only other British crew to make the 10-boat final medal race, finishing in ninth overall.