The 34-year-old is sitting pretty at the top of the Finn fleet at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy heading into Friday – winning four races in a row at one point.

But with just one Finn spot at Weymouth up for grabs, Ainslie hasn’t had it all his own way with fellow Brit Giles Scott sitting behind him in second having never been outside the top ten.

However Ainslie is determined to cling on to that top podium step and he’s prepared to battle tooth and nail all the way in search of a fourth Olympic title.

“It was another really hard day on Thursday with strong winds and we had three races in tough conditions out there and to cap it all off we had a very long sail back to the harbour so it was a very hard day all round,” he said.

“But I have had some very good races, I won the first race and the other two races I had to battle back from some poor first speeds.

“With regard to the nearest competition, I’m happy with where I am and that’s the most important thing.

“We’ve got two more races to come and then the medal race so things are certainly starting to get into the money end of the regatta.

“At times I’ve been over-playing the tide, and I made a few mistakes in the second two races on Thursday, not picking it the right side on the first beats, I had to catch up and fortunately I did a pretty good job of that and I’ve got to keep plugging away.”

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