Three-time Olympic Gold medallist Ben Ainslie will be among those bidding for top honours in Hamilton Harbour during next month's $100,000 King Edward VII Gold Cup.

The 31-year old Englishman captured a second straight Olympic Gold medal and fourth overall at this summer's Games in Beijing, and it's a certainty he will look to carry on in the same vein when Royal Bermuda Yacht Club (RBYC) hosts the annual sailing spectacle in the Island's capital October 7-12.

Ainslie is a past winner of the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) World Sailor of the Year Award as well as a former Laser Radial world champion who to date has eight European and world titles under his belt.

In addition, he is also a multiple British Yachtsman of the Year Award recipient and in 2005 became the most successful Finn sailor after winning an unprecedented fourth succesive Finn Gold Cup.

Last year Ainslie competed in the Americas Cup at the helm of Emirates Team New Zealand, finishing a close second behind Swiss boat Alinghi by a just one second, before being announced as skipper of Britain's 2009 America's Cup challenger Team Origin.

Next month marks the sixtieth time the King Edward VII Gold Cup has been contested for and others expected to be in the hunt for top honours include defending champion Mathieu Richard of France, reining ISAF World Match Racing Tour champion Ian Williams, top ranked USA skipper Brian Angel, South Africa Americas Cup helmsman and past Open de Espagna, Match Race Germany and Brazil Sailing Cup winner Paolo Cian and Stokholm Match Race Centre co-founder Bjorn Hansen who finished runners up to Richard in last year's Gold Cup final.

Returning for his fifth consecutive Gold Cup is Eric Monnin, of Switzerland, while Sally Barkow is the sole female skipper competing in this year's event that will also feature the inaugural Bermuda Festival of Sail.

Barkow is a past winner of the prestigious Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year Award and multiple winner of the Women's Rolex Championship and Women's Match Race World Championship.

Once again Bermuda's Gold Cup hopes will be pinned on 2006 Petit winner Blythe Walker who will be looking to improve on fourth place finish he managed last year.

Walker is a firm favourite among locals and over the years has competed in numerous Gold Cups and other international match racing events.

Presented by Argo Group, the King Edward VII Gold Cup is the penultimate stage of the annual ISAF World Match Race Tour that brings world-class match racing to the Island's shores and is also the oldest match racing competition in the world for one-design yachts.

The coveted trophy was originally presented at the Tri-Centenary Regatta at Jamestown, Virginia in 1907 by King Edward VII in commemoration of the 300th anniversary of the first settlement in America.

Sherman Hoyt, a renowned American sailor, won the regatta and was presented with the now historic cup.