Ben Ainslie has been cleared to represent Great Britain at the Olympics after the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) decided to impose no further punishment on the sailor for a boat rage incident at December’s World Championship in Australia.

The five-time Olympic Gold medalist, who used to train at Restronguet Sailing Club, near Falmouth, boarded a media boat at the end of race eight of the World Championships having felt the crew had impeded his progress on the downward leg.

He was subsequently banned from races nine and ten meaning he missed out on a chance to claim a medal finish in Perth.

However, the former Penryn Junior School pupil, had feared that his bid for a fourth Olympic gold medal in Weymouth this summer might be affected by the RYA’s decision at a recent tribunal to discuss the matter.

However, a statement from the RYA, said: “The tribunal agreed with the decision of the International Jury (at the World Championships) that the behaviour of Mr Ben Ainslie amounted to a gross breach of good manners and conduct that brought the sport into disrepute.

“Having considered all the evidence put before it, the tribunal was satisfied that it would not be appropriate for the tribunal to impose a penalty over and above that imposed by the International Jury at the event.

“In reaching its decision the tribunal acknowledged that the effect of the penalty imposed by the International Jury was to deny Mr Ainslie the possibility of taking part in the medal race for the event.”

Ainslie, said: “I welcome the RYA tribunal's decision and I am looking forward to fully focusing on my Olympic preparations.

“I deeply regret the incident, but would like to thank all the governing bodies involved for their thorough investigation.”

In their statement, the RYA also suggested there should be more stringent control of media boats.

It continued: “The tribunal also recognised that there was an apparent lack of active management of media boats at this and previous events, leading to repeated infringements of the provisions of the event media boat guidelines.

“In addition, formal rights of redress against official boats were not available to competitors.”