SYDNEY, Feb. 29 (Xinhua) -- Four-time Olympic gold medalist Ben Ainslie and the British team edged out the Australian team in the first match of SailGP 2020 held in the Sydney Harbor on February 28 and 29.
Sweeping all three races on the first day, the British team wasted no time establishing itself as the championship front-runner, holding a comfortable lead heading into the finale.
After two races on Saturday afternoon, defending champion Australia and Olympic gold medalist Tom Slingsby defeated Japan, Spain, the United States, France and Demark and entered the final competition with Britain.
The Australians found themselves behind from the start, incurring a penalty for entering the start box early and the hosts were unable to make up the deficit. Britain won its first event title in the global championship.
After the first event of SailGP Season 2, Britain sits atop the leaderboard with 47 points, followed by Australia with 42, Japan with 39, Spain with 31, the United States at 31 and Denmark with 22, while France rounds out the standings with 14 points.
The follow-up races of this year will take place in San Francisco, New York, Cowes and Copenhagen.