With only a point separating the Australian pair from Croatia’s Sime Fantela and Igor Marenic going into the showdown, they took the lead at the first mark.

Fantela and Marenic were right behind by the first downwind, but, heading back upwind, Spain’s Jordi Xammar and Joan Herp took over the lead with the Australians and Croatians settling into lanes behind them. 

Belcher and Ryan stayed ahead to finish in fourth, enough for them to take their third successive victory as a team with Croatia having to settle for silver.

"It’s a World Championship and everyone’s looking to come out and win," said Belcher, who has now won six 470 World Championship titles in a row with the other three coming alongside Malcolm Page.

"We started the Championship really well.

"Sometimes it just really goes your way and we had three wins, but sort of midway the wheels fell off a bit.

"The conditions are so difficult and we made it quite tough on ourselves.

"It’s a real credit to the Croatian team and to the others how close this Championship was.

"I guess we are really proud to be able to come back to the front and put together a solid final series after our first day of results.

"To come away with a win here is pretty special.

"It was close and a nice battle."

Russia’s Pavel Sozyskin and Denis Gribanov made sailing history by becoming the first team from their country to win a medal at a 470 World Championship.

Finishing the medal race in third, they easily claimed bronze to mark a career-best result.

In a repeat of the scorecard at last year’s World Championship, the medal race win went to Xammar and Herp, whose fourth-placed finish overall marks their best-ever result. 

The six countries securing their place at next year's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, subject to ISAF ratification were Finland, Germany, Argentina, Turkey, South Africa and Israel.

Meanwhile in the women’s competition, there was far greater certainty of the outcome going into the medal race as the gold medal went to defending champions Lara Vadlau and Jola Ogar of Austria with a fourth-placed finish.

Great Britain’s Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark took silver, while France’s Camille Lecointre and Helene Defrance came away with bronze.

For series leaders Vadlau and Ogar, the tipping point to victory came yesterday, scoring a one-three to take them to the medal race only needing one boat behind them to secure gold.

Since partnering up after the London 2012 Olympics and going through the process of changing Ogar’s nationality from Polish to Austrian, the pair have been on an upwards path.

"I think this is for us as a surprise," said Ogar.

"We knew we were well prepared before the Championship and could fight for the medal, but getting gold we knew we had to sail brilliantly.

"Our new coach has enabled us to put our improvement to a really high level.

"We put all our power to gain upwind and downwind and we just fought to the end, pumping like hell to gain."

Mills and Clark, the Olympic silver medallists at London 2012, had to win the medal race and hope the Austrians finished last to overturn their opponents.

Sailing a superb upwind, they had the lead by mark one, and extended throughout the next three legs to win by around half a minute.

Bronze for Lecointre and Defance marked their career-best performance after coming seventh in the medal race, while further back it was all about whether Australia or Spain would claim the final ticket on offer at the World Championship to Rio 2016. 

Australia’s Carrie Smith and Jamie Ryan went into the medal race carrying the points advantage for Olympic qualification, and a sixth-placed finish confirmed the spot over Spain's Marina Gallego and Fatima Reyes.

The three nations securing their place at next year's Games, subject to ISAF ratification, are Poland, Germany and Australia.

Next on the 470 programme is the 2016 World Championship in San Isidro, Argentina,  from February 17 to 20.


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