Yachting: Ainslie fails on European debut

A furious Ben Ainslie went crashing out of his European debut at the top level of world match-racing yesterday, failing to make the cut for the quarter-finals of the Toscana Elba Cup, part of the Swedish match series, because of an unforced error.

It was only on a countback that Ainslie, Britain's double Olympic medallist sailing for Emirates Team New Zealand, had been pushed into the sudden-death playoffs after being one of four bidding for the three automatic quarter-final places in his group to score four wins from six starts.

It was the battle of the two Ainslies in the repechage - his opponent, Ian Ainslie, was representing South Africa's Shosholoza challenge for the America's Cup.

Ben Ainslie controlled the pre-start manoeuvres, but then pushed for the start line too early, although he was convinced the timing was at fault.

After the group A and B round-robins were completed, there were seven ties broken to determine who advanced to the quarters and who advanced to the sudden-death repechage round.

Ian Ainslie, Francesco de Angelis, Russell Coutts and Hamish Pepper won their first knockout match, and will have to win their races overnight.

- INDEPENDENT