Ben Ainslie has won his fifth Finn world championship after coming second behind team-mate Ed Wright in the final race in Melbourne.

Ainslie, 30, the Olympic Finn champion who will defend his title in Beijing this summer, said he was delighted with his hard-fought win in the Gold Cup.

“It went down to the wire in the last race and this was as close,” he said. “There’s real strength and depth in the class now. I look forward to lots of hard work up until China.”

Ainslie had been only a point ahead of New Zealand’s Dan Slater going into the final race, and needed to finish second to win the regatta.

The Briton got away well at the start and soon opened up a healthy lead over Slater, but Ainslie revealed he almost pushed too hard at the end.

“I had a bit of a skid out halfway down the run to the finish which wasn’t far off a capsize,” he said.

He managed to keep it upright and finished just a wave behind Wright.
(BBC Sport)