In perfect match-racing conditions, New Zealand native Adam Minoprio bested three-time Olympic gold medalist Ben Ainslie of Great Britain during a classic best to three semi-final match at the King Edward VII Gold Cup on Hamilton harbor today. Ainslie and his Team Origin had only lost one out of ten matches until today, but he was out-matched by 23-year old Minoprio and his team who sailed a tight, focused race in all five matches. They won 3-2.

It was a lot harder out there than it may have looked as Ben was on top of every puff and once he got in the lead it was really difficult to catch him, Minoprio said. But, sometimes the puff went our way and we made the right call. But, it was the tightest racing. We did well to keep our heads in the game.

Ainslie, who has just come off a gold medal win at the Olympics in the Finn Class in August, agrees that match racing is a different discipline and his hat was off to young Minoprio for his strong performance in the match. Ainslie incurred two penalties during the five races. His boat speed was consistently fast. When Minoprio had the lead, he covered Ainslie brilliantly and rarely let his rival break away.

I was on Team New Zealand in 2007 and I was watching him then doing really well in Auckland, sailing every chance he got, Ainslie said. He has been doing extremely well in match racing all year and Adam sailed brilliantly today. We will definitely be at the next match racing event and we are going to spend this next year really honing our skills.

Minoprio will proceed to the finals against Johnie Berntsson of Sweden who defeated fellow Swedish team Mattias Rahm.

The Swedish teams used classic match racing skills throughout their match, making the starts amongst the most exciting of the week. But, Berntsson picked all the right shifts today and was able to dominate and win the match 3-0.

It was perfect match racing conditions and it has been great for us, Berntsson said. It could have gone either way and it was a hard race all the way.

The two finalists Minoprio and Berntsson proceed to the finals tomorrow at 12 pm. but only one sailor can be crowned king. To date, a Swedish skipper has never won the Gold Cup and former New Zealanders to have won the Gold Cup include 7-time winner Russell Coutts and two time Gold Cup winner Chris Dickson.