Ben Ainslie leads British gold rush at Melbourne regatta

Britain's singlehanded sailors won gold medals at the ISAF World Series Sail Melbourne regatta. Ben Ainslie marked his comeback to Olympic sailing by taking gold in the Finn class while Nick Thompson defeated a strong home fleet to win in the Lasers. Ainslie, who a week ago won the World Match Racing Championship by taking the Monsoon Cup in Malaysia, has been out of the Finn class for most of two years because of his commitment to the now-defunct TeamOrigin's bid for the America's Cup. He faced stiff opposition from two other Britons, the world champion Ed Wright and the upcoming Giles Scott. A fourth place in the double-points medal race gave him a four-point lead over Wright with Scott completing British dominance in the men's heavyweight dinghy. Thompson had built a substantial points lead in the qualifying races of the Laser and a ninth in the medal race was adequate to claim gold as both his closest rivals, including ISAF World Sailor of the Year and world champion Tom Slingsby, were in the rear half of the 10-boat medal fleet. In the women's Laser class, Britain's Andrea Brewster was sixth and Charlotte Dobson eighth.