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Ben Ainslie - Source: ONE Sport
Three-time Olympic champion Ben Ainslie cleared away from a strong international field of skippers on the third day of the New Zealand match racing regatta off Auckland on Friday.
On a day marred by a lack of wind, Ainslie maintained his dominance and sits on 13 wins out of 16 races and is guaranteed a place in the semifinals.
Not so certain are the other semifinalists, with five skippers sitting on either eight or nine wins.
Among them are New Zealanders Adam Minoprio, who shares second place with Poland's Karol Jablonski on nine wins and Dean Barker, alongside Frenchman Bertrand Pace and Australian Torvar Mirsky on eight.
Barker has lost four of his six races in the second flight of races and is in danger of missing the semis of a regatta he has dominated in the past.
He has lacked the consistency of Ainslie, who finished day three with a dramatic one-second defeat of Frenchman Sebastien Col.
Standings:
Ben Ainslie (Great Britain) 13 wins, Karol Jablonski (Poland) 9, Adam Minoprio (New Zealand) 9, Bertrand Pace (France) 8, Torvar Mirsky (Australia) 8, Dean Barker (New Zealand) 8, Magnus Holmberg (Sweden) 6, Francesco Bruni (Italy) 6, Sebastien Col (France) 5, Chris Dickson (New Zealand) 4
