Sailing: Ainslie lands title as Devoti protest fails

Tempers boiled over as two Olympic medallists fought for supremacy in the Finn European Championship in Turkey on Saturday.

Britain's Ben Ainslie, who won silver in 1996 and then gold in the 2000 Olympics in the Laser, was involved in a pre-start tussle, including a few flying insults, with Italy's Luca Devoti, who took the silver medal in the bigger Finn singlehander in Sydney.

Ainslie was leading going into the final race and needed a good result to beat second-placed Devoti and take his first major crown in the class he has adopted for 2004.

It took the organisers three attempts to start the final race and Devoti was keen to bottle up Ainslie, just as the Briton had done when shutting out Brazil's Robert Scheidt to take gold in Sydney. As the tension mounted there were some strong verbal exchanges, though normally Devoti can be as forcefully articulate in English as he is in his native Italian.

To make matters worse, Ainslie came from eighth to overtake Devoti in the lead and secure the title. Considerably miffed, Devoti lodged a formal protest, alleging unsportsmanlike behaviour and an international jury duly convened to hear the case. Ainslie was given an official warning but no points were deducted, no disqualification applied and he duly retained the Championship.

"I certainly didn't think I would win the European championship with only five months sailing in the Finn," said Ainslie, with Stephen Park, the RYA's olympic sailing manager, adding: "It was a fantastic effort."

The addition of Britain's 2000 Olympic silver medallist in the 49er, Ian Barker, to the crew of Panther, the British entry in the professional division of the Tour de France a la Voile, added new spark. Scoring two seconds in the three races held off La Rochelle pushed them up to sixth overall as they complete the final Atlantic leg and then move to St Cyprien for the Mediterranean section, which finishes in Nice.

Switzerland's Etienne David holds the yellow jersey and leading the student division in Force EDC is the Anglo-Australian crew skippered by Simon Sutherland.

Before moving on to Greece, for what is in effect the world championship for his class, the Finn Gold Cup, Ainslie is using two of his four days break to go to Ireland, where over 500 yachts are being mustered for Ford Cork Week.

Yesterday the Sigma 33 class, which is staging its national championship as part of the regatta, left for its offshore race. Today, the rest take to the tracks.