London, England – Denmark's Jonas Hogh-Christensen edged Great Britain's Ben Ainslie in both men's Finn races Sunday, when sailing at the London Olympics got underway.
The competition began with early action in the men's Finn and Star classes, as well as women's Elliott 6m match racing.
Ainslie entered as the heavy favorite to with the Finn, or men's one-person dinghy, class. He is the two-time defending gold medalist and three-time Olympic champion overall.
The 35-year-old is currently second in the Finn standings behind Hogh- Christensen. Still, Ainslie is in good position. In fleet races like the Finn and Star, each boat participates in 10 races, where points are awarded in ascending order -- 1 for first, 2 for second, and so on. Both classes had two races Sunday.
After the 10 races, the 10 best boats advance to the medal race, and Ainslie is comfortably in that group so far.
Croatian Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic sits in third place for Finn. American Zach Railey, the silver medalist in 2008, got off to a rough start and occupies 15th place.
In the men's Star class, or two-person keelboat, Brazil sits atop the standings after finishing fourth and first in Sunday's two races. The tandem of Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada won silver in Beijing four years ago.
Great Britain's Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson, the defending gold medalists, used a runner-up finish in the second Star race to vault into fifth place.
The Finn and Star classes will continue on Monday with two more races.
The women's Elliott 6m -- a new sailing event comprised of 12 crews -- began its round-robin stage Sunday. Australia, Spain and Russia all won twice, while the United States split its two matches.
Round-robin matches continue until August 4, when the best eight crews advance to the knockout stage.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.