NI sailors McGovern and Seaton finish 10th in 49er class

Northern Ireland sailors Ryan Seaton and Matt McGovern finished 10th in the 49er class, after ending Thursday in ninth in the medal race.

The pair had been eighth overall as they entered the final event.

At the London Olympics in 2012, they finished 14th, this is likely to be their final Olympic outing as a duo.

After winning one of Saturday's races, they reached as high as fourth by the halfway point.

In the end, it was the Kiwis,Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, who were pre-games favourites, who secured the gold medal. Aussie pairing of Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen took silver and Erik Heil and Thomas Ploessel of Germany won bronze.

Speaking after the final race, Matt McGovern said, "We made a good start and things were looking good but it was a real tricky course".

"We had some really good races during the week and worked well as a team - we were just a bit unlucky with the wind shifts on Thursday," Ryan Seaton added.

"Obviously we are a bit disappointed as we came here to get a medal but at least we can walk away from the event saying we gave 100%.

"We pushed even harder for this cycle than we did for London 2012 and we can be proud of ourselves for that."