Team GB pairing David Florence and Richard Hounslow made it two successive Olympic Games silver medals in the men's canoe C2 category.
Florence and Hounslow finished a fine second at London 2012 and matched their result in Rio de Janeiro, having led for much of their run in the final.
They lost most of their time at the bottom of the run, handing gold to Slovakian cousins Ladislav and Peter Skantar, who prevailed by less than half-a-second.
German pair Franz Anton and Jan Benzien threatened to snatch gold as the final paddlers in the competition, but they also suffered towards the end of their run and missed out on the medals completely.
It was the second medal for Team GB at the Whitewater Centre after Joe Clarke's golden performance in the men's K1 category on Wednesday.
Florence, who also won a solo C1 silver in Beijing in 2008, said: "I'm not disappointed at all. It wasn't quite gold, but after the disappointment a couple of days ago for me, we just wanted to put together a really solid run and perform to the best of our ability.
"In a sport like this, when you spend all your time preparing and the slightest of mistakes costs you a medal, I'm really pleased with the way we held that run together.
"The Skantars went drastically faster than I think anyone thought possible on the basis of the first runs. That can be a little bit scary when you are sat at the start and you've still got five minutes to wait for your run."