RHU sailor Luke Patience insists he still has unfinished business at the Olympics Games as he reflects on a whirlwind year.

It was 13 months ago that the devastating news arrived that Patience's sailing partner Elliot Willis had been diagnosed with bowel cancer.

For 30-year-old Patience his first thoughts were for his teammate, but it threw his participation at Rio 2016 into doubt.

The duo had already been selected for the GB squad but without Willis, the London 2012 silver medallist would have to qualify again with a new partner.

Patience teamed up with Chris Grube and the pair were forced to cram what would usually be near on four years of preparation into a matter of months.

He said: "The eight-month build up to the Olympics with Twiggy (Chris Grube) was a totally unique journey. To attempt to put a package together that might have a sniff at an Olympic medal was an amazing challenge and one that has shaped some new skills.

"One of the main things was how much I could learn in so little time. Fast tracking teamwork was high on the list of priorities and it involved both coaches and experts as well as Twiggy and I in the boat. Quickly we had to find the right people to do the right things - the clock was racing.

"Yet I knew going into the games in Rio, we were always going to have some reasonably un-polished parts to us. And as ever, the whole world has an opinion on what we should be doing, but we trusted our process and the people helping us. "If we only walked away from this with one thing. To be proud of what we did.

"I am proud of the result of Twiggy, for stepping into Elliot's shoes with the humbleness of a Buddhist monk. Of the way we conducted ourselves through it. And we always had the mantra that somebody had to win. Why not us? We really weren't that far off at the end of the regatta."

Patience and Grube finished fifth in the 470 at the Rio games. However the Rhu sailor's breakneck year has not tempered his drive for further Olympic glory.

He added: "Tokyo 2020 is firmly in the sights. I'm excited at the prospect of putting together something hard and honest with slightly more time on my hands.

"This Olympic journey I've been on for over 10 years still has some story left, I have unfinished business with it."