It was a disappointing day for Ben Ainslie in today's (Monday) finn races at the London 2012 Olympics.

Trailing Denmark's Jonas Hogh-Christensen in the overall standings, Ben Ainslie started the first race well, but fell back into the fleet.

The Brit managed to battle his way back up to fourth place by the turn of the first mark, but he was behind Hogh-Christensen in second and race leader Dan Slater, from New Zealand.

To try and make up ground, Ben chose to tack to the right of the course, while the leaders went left. It proved to be a costly error as Ainslie finished the race in sixth.

However, it was to get worse in the second race of the day as Ainslie finished 12th overall, and five places behind Hogh-Christensen.

The race had started well for Ainslie as he saw his rival from Denmark hit the committee boat and have to complete some penalty turns beginning of the race, putting him at the back of the fleet.

However, Ainslie turned the first mark in a disappointing 14th place and never managed to work his way back up into the leading pack.

 

Hogh-Christensen on the other hand battled his way back up to seventh.

It sees Ainslie drop to third in the overall standings, behind Hogh-Christensen, in first, and France's Jonathan Lobert, in second.

Each competitor will complete ten races, before a medal race on Sunday. They are allowed to discard their worse finish, from the ten races, from their overall points total. This means Ainslie 12th place could prove to be irrelevant.

However, Ainslie currently trails Hogh-Christensen by 11 points and, having been beaten by the Dane in every race so far, he will need to up his game to in the remaining six races to get in contention for gold.

In the medal race, the race points count for double. They are then added to the overall series points total to decide who finishes in gold, silver and bronze.