NIKI Birrell left Holland, where he took part in a final international regatta ahead of this summer's Paralympics in Rio, feeling mixed emotions on Sunday.

The Knutsford sailor could not add to a haul of five titles at the Para World Sailing Championships, but took heart from pipping 2012 gold-medallists Australia to a silver medal on the water at Medemblik.

"This time last week I wouldn't have taken second as I wanted to win," he said afterwards.

"But given how the competition panned out - we had a few things go against us and sailed badly in couple of races - we can be pleased."

Birrell, who was born with cerebral palsy, was in a boat with regular partner Alexandra Rickham contesting the SKUD class.

The duo went into the event's final day lying third, tied on points with Aussie tandem Dan Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch, with Poland out in front.

They had done well to recover following a day forget on Thursday, suffering kit damage - and a blow to their title hopes - on their way to eighth and 11th in the two races.

A solid pair of scores on Friday, when they were third and then second, kept them in medal contention.

Birrell, 29, said: "In the first race [on Saturday] we led all the way until an incident at the end of the last run that put Australia ahead of us.

"I was pretty convinced they were wrong, so took it to the jury room and won after a protest.

"We sailed well again in the second race, but unfortunately had our seats a bit too far forward.

"It was really choppy - that made it difficult to be quick upwind as we had lots of water in the boat.

"That was as well as we could have done.

"We want gold in Brazil, so need to work hard finding a way to beat the Poles."