Hiscocks (right) won silver in Sydney 2000 with Ian Barker

The pair, who will compete at this summer's Olympics, began the final day in fifth but clawed their way up the leaderboard in the light airs.

The defending champions have won medals in the last three world events.

Draper: "We are really pleased with this result, especially as we did not think that we sailed our best. But we have certainly learnt a lot."

Spain's 2002 world champion Iker Martinez and Xabier Fernandez won the event with one race to spare, while Marcus Baur and Max Groy of Germany were four points adrift of the British duo.

Draper added: "The event was a really tough one, with the wind providing a really unstable race course making it hard to know which way to go. Some sailors, like Martinez and Fernandez, did a great job of reading these shifts and this showed in the results.

"We have a number of things that we will be working on between now and Spa Regatta, which will be our next event."

Fellow Team GBR sailors Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes finished ninth overall, while the new pairing of Alister Richardson and Alex Tobutt finished in fifteenth place.

Olympic sailing boss Stephen Park said: "Chris and Simon did as well as they could today.

"The Spaniards had to make a big mistake to lose their lead and this didn't happen, however they will be pleased to have medalled for the third consecutive year.