Australia: Olympic champion causes serious racing accident at sailing regatta (video)

Crash of a champion: The four-time British Olympic sailing champion Ben Ainslie caused a serious accident these days. On the starting line at the Australian Grand Prix. Both his team’s yacht and the Japanese yacht were badly damaged. No one was injured in the incident, but as a result of the accident, the British team had to be eliminated from the competition – it was withdrawn from the race due to the contact and damage rule. The dramatic collision in perfect conditions occurred shortly before the start of the third race, so that both yachts could not compete for the last race of the day. The accident happened just minutes after Japan had taken the lead in Sydney for the time being with victory in race two. Ainslie and his team have been banned for the remainder of the event, and their chances of qualifying for the San Francisco Grand Final are gone. All crew members of both boats were safe and uninjured after the incident, and all debris was removed from the water. Ainslie said afterwards that “to be honest, he had not seen the Japanese at all. He was focused on the US boat and the first time he saw the Japanese was when they were hit in a collision.