Lymington's double Olympic medalist, Ben Ainslie, swept the board at the Finn Europeans held in Marstrand, Sweden this week.

There was no need for the Team GBR sailor and current defending European Finn champion to compete on the final day and he was in fact conspicuous by his absence.

Our 'Team Volvo for life' sailor led the event from start to finish and although the points were close during the first half of the Championship, he eventually pulled out a 19 point lead over the 1996 Olympic gold medalist Mateusz Kusznierewicz of Poland and finished 32 points in front of the 1996 Olympic silver medalist, third-placed Sebastien Godefroid of Belgium.

In conditions that ranged from nothing to 22 knots, Ainslie scored no worse than an eighth place and included three bullets in his scoreline.

On the penultimate day he sailed two perfect races crossing the line first in both, which was enough to see him win the European championships for a second consecutive year.

Enthusing over yet another championship title Ben commented: "I am really happy with how I sailed and it is good to be so consistent during this event. It is obviously particularly pleasing to have won with a day to spare as all the top guys are competing."

He continued: "The big event is now the World Championships in Cadiz this September, which is the first opportunity to qualify for the Olympics."

Teammate Andrew Simpson improved his performance as the event progressed, finishing the final race with a fourth place which gave him seventh overall.