Ben Ainslie back in battle with fellow Britons in Falmouth

Ben Ainslie is back into another knife-fight with his fellow Britons after the first day of the Finn class world championship in Falmouth. He is still a banker for a fourth gold at the Olympic Games regatta in Weymouth.

Last week the triple gold and silver Olympic medallist had to be content with second at the warm-up national championship as Giles Scott, who is racing this week in an America’s Cup branded regatta in Venice, took top honours.

He opened his world championship tally with a win over another arch-rival, Ed Wright, after the Russian Egor Terpigorez was black flag disqualified. But Wright won the second race of a day that saw difficult conditions. The west-south-west breeze was shifting in direction and erratic in strength.

Britain took three of the top four placers in that opening race with Andrew Mills in fourth, and had three of the top four overall at the end of the day.

Ainslie was third in the second race with Mills eighth, meaning that Wright held the bragging rights going into the club house.

But there are 10 races scheduled over the five days until Thursday with a medal decider to be contested by the top 10 on Friday.

There are over 90 boats competing for the Finn Gold Cup with the six remaining qualifications for the Olympic regatta, starting 29 July, also being decided.