London 2012 Olympics: Patience pays off as long-held dream becomes reality for Scot

IT was really during the 2000 Olympic Games when Britain’s sailors led the world with an unprecedented deluge of five medals that Scotland’s Luke Patience reaffirmed his desire to stand on the Olympic podium.

The 26-year-old Scot, who started sailing at eight in a shoebox-shaped Optimist dinghy at Rhu Marina on the Gareloch, delivered on his dream yesterday when he and crew Stuart Bithell won the silver medal in the 470 class.

The duo had promised that they would be the crew to bury the belief that first-time Olympians don’t medal in sailing and they dispelled that myth three days ago when they were already assured of at least silver.

Along with Australia’s Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page, who clinched gold, the top two crews set a level which no other crews could match. The young British duo finished a massive 30 points clear of third place.

Patience and Bithell had to finish two places above the Aussie duo and twice during the 30 minutes medal race if they were to win gold.

Twice during the high noon shootout they looked to have done enough, but the downwind speed of Belcher and Page in the light conditions proved telling. Their challenge for gold was finally annulled on the last run when they were forced to take a penalty turn for using too much body kinetics to help propel their boat.

“About half way down the last run it was clear it had gone, so we just thought let’s just enjoy the rest of the race. We are here. We are going to be getting Olympic medals. We are 25 years old. We built this campaign out of nowhere in late 2009 and here we are in 2012,” grinned Patience.

The young British pair have become the outstanding double act among Britain’s sailors, though their performance may ultimately have fallen shy of the impeccable Australians who are the next off the production line of 470 medallists from veteran coach Victor Kovalenko, who coached Page to gold in Beijing with helm Nathan Wilmot.

Patience and Bithell have taken one of Kovalenko’s maxims by the scruff of the neck – to never speak of the “Olympic Games” and instead treat it as a big regatta, at most calling it the “Games” and they really sought to enjoy every minute of their regatta.

“What a journey it’s been and Morgan Reeser our coach has just been so good at guiding us in the hard times, and believe me they come. But today and probably for the rest of the autumn these are the good times,” added Patience. “I have been spurred by the Olympics my whole life. I was watching in 2000 and thought: ‘that is what I am going to do’. But I have always thought I can do it. I have always known. Me and Stuart have won medals at events all the way through, but between 2010 and 2011 was when the train really started going, winning medals in mixed conditions and that was when we really knew what we could do here.”

The British duo won silver on their debut together in 2009 at the world championships in Copenhagen and again finished second in Perth, Australia before Christmas.

They have consistently closed the gap on the Australian pair. One of the keys to their success was spending as much time as possible on the Weymouth and Portland waters, missing out on some important international regattas this season to do so.

“We had bits of bad luck and made bad decisions. There is no such thing as perfection and we made little mistakes, but we can’t say anything much that we did bad here,” said Patience. “From here, there is plenty to work on. But we are just going to enjoy it. This has settled the demons in my head a little bit. That is not something I have not been able to settle for at least 15 years, about not being content. You have life goals and until you tick them off then you are not content, and so for the last 15 years I have aspired. And one thing which is good is that I am young and fit and I am not finished.”

Mirroring the success of the men, Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark left London 2012 with their “heads held high” after today, capping a wonderful 18 months together with an Olympic silver medal, also in the 470 class. The pair teamed up early last year following the sudden retirement of Clark’s then partner in the 470 class, double Olympic gold medallist Sarah Ayton. They have made miraculous progress since and, having become the first Brits to win the world title a few months back, came into today’s medal race with a real chance of topping the podium, sitting joint top of the standings alongside New Zealand’s Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie.

However, just like Patience and Bithell, the duo were thwarted by their Antipodean opponents and forced to settle for silver – Britain’s fifth and final sailing medal of the Games. “No gold post box for us then,” Clark said.