Peter Burling and Blair Tuke's winning streak ends

Blair Tuke (right) hangs on the trapeze as Peter Burling helms during the 49er skiff racing. Photo Tomas Moya Llado.

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke's unprecedented winning run in the 49er class is over.

The Kiwi pair have finished third at the South American Championships in Rio this morning - their final warm-up regatta before next month's Olympics.

The result brings to an end Burling and Tuke's incredible streak of 27 straight wins stretching back to 2012, when the pair collected silver at the London Games.

The London gold medallists, Australian duo Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen, were again the victors on this occasion, claiming the regatta on countback over the Polish team of Lukasz Przybytek and Pawer Kolodzinski.

Burling and Tuke were a further eight points back.

Just six races were held across the two-day regatta, which was sailed on the same course as the Olympic venue. Next month's Olympic regatta will sailed over a week.

The result has been greeted with shock in the sailing community, with sailweb.co.uk running the headline "Stop the Presses - Peter Burling and Blair Tuke were beaten in a championship event!", but it is unlikely to deter the Kiwi pair.

While proud of their winning record, Burling told the Herald last month it is not something they place a lot of stock in.

"For us, the Olympics is the main goal and we're not afraid of trying things at events and putting it on the line. It doesn't bother us too much if we lose an event, as long as we learn as much as we can and go into Rio with our best chance of winning a gold for New Zealand," said Burling, who at 25 will attend his third Olympic Games next month.