Tom Burton claimed Australia's first medal of the ISAF Sailing World Championships in Spain on Thursday, silver in the Laser class.
Defending Champions Mat Belcher and Will Ryan took the lead in the Men's 470 fleet at Santander, while Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen moved into third in the 49er class.
After a week of consistent results, NSW sailor Burton went into Thursday's top-ten, double-point medal race ranked first, but only two points ahead of British sailor Nick Thompson.
But Dutch sailor Nicolas Heiner won the race to jump from third place to first.
Burton was seventh but the the 24-year-old was happy with silver, his best ever performance at a world regatta.
"We had pretty tricky conditions, very wavy, pretty breezy, and half way through that race it looked like I was coming fourth overall so to come away with second I'm reasonably happy.
"My best result at the worlds (previously) has been a fifth place, so I'm pretty happy with silver," said Burton.
Finishing in the top 23 countries also means Australia qualified the Laser for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
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