A complex tiebreaker knocked Great Britain's Ian Williams out of the medal rounds in the Argo Group Gold Cup yesterday morning.

He lost a three-way decider and failed to make the cut to move up to the quarter-finals from the 'last chance' repechage round-robin.

The Group Four six-team sail-off ended in a three-way tie between Williams, Kiwi Adam Minoprio's BlackMatch Team and Great Britain's three-time Olympic gold medallist Ian Ainslie's Team Origin.

Ainslie beat Minoprio, Williams beat Ainslie and Minoprio beat Williams. That meant overall each team had four wins and one loss.

Originally the event organisers and umpires decided to stage a sail-off with the three teams. Each skipper drew a letter. Minoprio drew 'A', Ainslie 'B' and Williams was left with 'C'.

Under that scheme, Minoprio would sail Ainslie and the winner would qualify for the quarter-finals. The loser would then take on Williams and the winner of that match would advance while the loser would fall into the 5-8 bracket.

But Williams objected and filed a request for redress. Under the Racing Rules of Sailing (RRS), Chief Umpire Shane Borrell convened the international jury to hear the request. They concluded that there was a three-way tie in the repechage group and that the repechage round was in fact part of Stage One of the event, sailed as Group Four.

Under the RRS tiebreaker, rule C11.1a as applied to the three competitors, Ainslie came out on top with two wins. He automatically moved up to the quarter-finals. Minoprio and Williams were still tied. The same tiebreaker rule was then applied again and since Minoprio beat Williams in the only match they had sailed against each other so far, Minoprio took second place.

Thus Minoprio moved up to the quarters and Williams lost his last chance.

The setback for Williams enormous. He was ranked number four on the Match Racing Tour going into the Gold Cup and hoped to pick up valuable Tour points in Bermuda.

"It is farcical," said Williams, "that you could be knocked out based on a race you didn't sail. It all came down to who won in Group Two and we were not in that group. That's basically it."

Minoprio, who moved up, said: "I feel that no decision would have been ideal but I think in the end it was the fairest decision they could make. I am glad that it went in our favour although it was too bad it had to be decided in this way, but it was fair."

Ainslie added: "I feel really sorry for Ian but I have been in that situation before. It is sometimes impossible to break a tie to suit everyone. The jury has to work with what they have got. You have to take it on the chin and move on."

A boatload of talent will be on the water today for the quarter-finals.

Mirsky is ranked number three on the World Match Racing Tour. Radich is ranked eighth and won the Gold Cup in 2002. Monnin has been in Gold Cup Sunday racing six times in seven events.

Berntsson won the Gold Cup in 2008. The defending champion Ainslie ranks number five on the Tour while Minoprio has been runner-up twice here and is hungry for a win. And the young hot shots Canfield and Corbett have everything to win and nothing to lose.

The quarter-finals will be sailed today, starting at 8.00 a.m.

Quarter-finalists

Torvar Mirsky (AUS) Mirsky Racing Team

Jesper Radich (DEN) Gaastra Racing Team

Taylor Canfield (USA)

Eric Monnin (SUI) Swiss Match Racing Team

Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team

Reuben Corbett (NZL) Black Sheep Racing

Ben Ainslie (GBR) TEAMORIGIN

Adam Minoprio (NZL) BlackMatch Racing

n In the first race of the Junior Gold Cup on Thursday, Portugal's Diogo Pereira took victory while Rasmus Rosengren from Sweden placed second. Frederik Rask from Demark was third, closely followed by Bermuda's Ceci Wollmann.

Rounding out the top five was Chris Williford from the USA.

The other local sailors, Sam Stan, Rory Caslin and Chase Cooper all had top ten finishes – 6th, 7th and 9thy respectively.