It was the battle of the Olympic medallists on day three of the Finn European championship with the 1996 gold medallist Mateusz Kusznierewicz of Poland battling it out with the British double Olympic Laser medallist Ben Ainslie.

Kusznierewicz got the better of Ainslie in the first race of the day, taking his first race win of the championship in front of Frenchman Guillaume Florent. Ainslie crossed the line in fourth place just behind Michael Fellman of Germany and in front of team mate Andrew Simpson, who finished fifth.

The tables turned in the second race and this time it was Ainslie who led Kusznierewicz. Karlo Kuret of Croatia took the race win, with Ainslie just behind in second and Kusznierewicz crossing the line third.

After five races, Kusznierewicz who has been the most consistent sailor, scoring nothing worse than a third place, managed to maintain the overall lead. After his performance today, Ainslie moves up into second place overall, six points in front of the 1996 Olympic silver medallist Sebastien Godefroid of Belgium.

The championship consists of a total of nine races which concludes on Sunday 15 May.

Results

1, Mateusz Kusznierewicz, POL (2,2,2,1,(3)) 7 pts

2, Ben Ainslie, GBR ((28),4,1,4,2) 11 pts

3, Sebastien Godefroid, BEL (1,6,3,(35),7) 17 pts

GBR

16, Andrew Simpson ((41),3,24,5,30) 62 pts

45, Matt Howard (46,48,27,31,(51)) 152 pts