The Australian crew, skippered by Thomas Grimes had finished as top qualifiers in this International University Sports Federation event in the world’s biggest man-made harbour.

But they were overtaken by the French crew skippered by Pierrick Letouze, which led by three points after the first day of finals racing.

However a resurgence of form saw Australia 2 win two of their final three races to finish on 20 points, while the home crew could only manage a sixth place - which they were able to discard - and two fourth places to total 22.00.

France 3, an all-woman crew, finished strongly to move up from fourth to third place with 28 points, with Australia 1, who began the day third, dropping to sixth with 42 points.

Japan finished fourth with 39 points, the same total as fifth-placed Netherlands 1.

Early leaders Spain 2 slipped to ninth position.