Ainslie survives calamities to make final

A man overboard during a complete wipe-out still could not stop the march of triple Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie to the final of the German match racing championship on Lake Constanz today.

Ainslie was racing British rival and the current world champion Ian Williams in the quarter final when he was hit by a vicious gust of wind, his 35-foot yacht was flattened, and fellow double gold medallist and tactician Iain Percy was catapulted overboard.

Percy was quickly rescued, but the outside assistance of returning him to the boat meant disqualification from that race. However, Williams, having earlier crashed into Ainslie, was penalised by threequarters of a point and Ainslie recovered his composure not just enough to overwhelm Williams but to go on and beat another former world champion, the Australian Peter Gilmour, by 3-2 in their semi-final.

Ainslie now lines up against the defending German champion, Damien Iehl, in tomorrow’s final.