FIGHTING talk from Portland’s gold medal contenders Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell says the ‘gloves are off’ as they look to take on the Aussies today.

Sailing is a sport that pitches athletes against the elements and a medal race course close to land throws even more 'random' conditions into the mix.

470 Men’s helm Luke Patience, of Weston, said he hoped the infamous shifty winds coming around the Nothe headland would play into their hands today.

He said: “It’s a bitch of a race course and the medal race is by far the most aggressive race you can do.

“There is a certain etiquette at the beginning of the regatta when you’re not being an attacking team and you take a bit of space to get the ball rolling.

“By the medal race it’s gloves off, we’re here to rip your head off and then shake hands on the shore because actually we’re all friends.

“It’s a different feel to the race than, say, the first and second fleet race.”

Just four points separate Team Patience Bithell and their Australian rivals Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page, currently in the top spot, from Olympic gold.

The Team GB contenders need to finish one boat ahead of the reigning World Champions to claim victory.

Both teams are guaranteed at least silver due to their consistent top performances in the 10 earlier fleet races – so now it will come down to a match race between the two top contenders.

Patience, 26, said: “We’ve had some good spells medal racing over the last 12 months.

“It was an area of weakness for us in the first year of our partnership, it’s something we worked on really hard.”

He said the Nothe course had proved devastating for some fleet leaders, including their team GB teammates Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson who had been wearing the yellow jersey until the final, most importand race.

He added: “Here the Aussies have worn it for the majority of the regatta, we had it for the first two days.

“Now it's down to the last race, there’s a huge amount of weight attached to it going in.

“This is the most important race of the regatta unless you’re 20 points ahead going in and that rarely happens.”

The Portland duo have a lot on their plate, as a win for Australia could ensure its overthrow of Great Britain as most successful sailing nation, a reign Britain has had – on gold medal count – for 12 years.

But a relaxed and happy Bithell, 25, said they were just delighted they could share their success with their counterparts Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark.

He said: “It’s going to be brilliant, myself and Luke are a new partnership, they’re a new partnership, we all get on very well. It’s great that we've got this opportunity to be together on this journey.

“If we’d all sat around a table a year ago and said us four will be going into our medal races, guaranteed medals, in a year’s time, we’d be like ‘Get in!’ “That’s special, it’s kind of nice to do it in a way we can celebrate together.”