RHU sailor Luke Patience was yesterday (Wednesday) named among the first athletes to officially join Team GB for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Patience, who bagged a silver medal at London 2012, will be aiming to get back up on the podium in Brazil next summer when he teams up with two-time world champion Elliot Willis in the 470 men’s event.

A total of eight athletes have been selected across six of the ten sailing events, who between them have won four Olympic medals and seven World Championship golds.

Patience was delighted to receive the long awaited call, he said: “It’s such an exciting phone call to get and it just gets the wee butterflies going.

“You dream about a single thing for so many years of your life, certainly all of my adult life in my case, so to get the call saying you’re selected for the Olympics is just so good, such an honour.

“I’m always proud to don the Team GB shirt and here we go again. Round two, let’s fight.” Patience insists Willis is the best man to have at his side as they get ready to compete in their first Olympics together.

“I’m just so pleased to be in a team with Elliot and be able to experience his first excitement to it all. He is a very grounded guy and he is very unaffected by the occasion, but let’s be honest it’s the Olympic Games, and it is going to be a good one.

“I’m so pleased to be in a boat with him, we get on really well. We raced each other hard, to the bone, in our younger years and here we are in the team together.

“Stuart and I had a fantastic experience last time round and I’m sure me and Elliot and I are on the same path to have a fantastic experience to go and race hard. He has got to be one of the most talented and successful sailors that has yet to go to the Olympic Games so I’m so pleased that he has that opportunity.”