Six hours later, Singapore's Optimist team returned to Pattaya's Ocean Marina Yacht Club with heads hung low. They were greeted with consoling embraces.

Hot favourites to clinch the first gold medal on offer at the South-east Asia Games sailing competition, they had to settle for silver after Thailand upset them 2-1 in the final.

SingaporeSailing chief executive officer Andrew Sanders, though, remained upbeat.

He said: 'The Thais were a very good team as well, and the competition is in their home waters.

'There are always ups and downs and we've got to take the good and bad - that's why we play sport.'

SingaporeSailing president and chef de mission Low Teo Ping had said last month that the team had a strong chance of bagging the gold.

After all, except for the team's youngest member, Darren Choy, 13, the other four - Rachel Lee, Russell Kan and Luke Tan, all 14, and Daniella Ng, 15 - have a strong track record in international racing.

The quartet were part of the team that captured the silver behind winners Greece in July's Optimist World Championships in Italy.

Earlier that month, they also topped the International Optimist Dinghy Association Asian Optimist Championships in Singapore.

Naturally, the loss was unexpected.

Said Thailand's national optimist coach Somkiat Poonpat: 'I was surprised we won because I knew the Singapore team were stronger than us. But we won through teamwork, tactics and heart.'

The four-nation event began with a round-robin series, where each team raced once against every other team.

Each team had four boats in a race, with one reserve. Each member scored points equal to his/her finishing place, and the team with the lower total points won.

The top two teams then raced each other in a best-of-three final.

Singapore got off to a good start, recording straight victories in the round-robin stage over Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia.

In the final, the Republic took the first race easily against the Thais, posting an impressive 1-2-3-8 finish.

But the Thais took the next two tightly fought races, posting 1-2-5-6 and 1-2-5-8 finishes for the gold.

Malaysia beat Myanmar 2-0 to clinch the bronze.

Rachel and Russell lie first and second respectively in the Optimist girls' and boys' events, with eight races completed and four to go.

Read more stories on the 24th SEA Games here.