Ainslie is a four-time Finn class world champion

Ainslie missed out on the recent World Sailing Championships in Cascais to work with Team NZ in the Americas Cup.

His replacement in Portugal, Ed Wright, will be his reserve for China.

Only one boat per nation per class will compete, so Ainslie's selection is a clear indication that his Olympic hopes have not been hit by missing Cascais.

Wright finished eighth in the Finn medal race at the Worlds to end the regatta in sixth place overall.

606: DEBATE Should Ainslie be a certainty for Olympic selection?

Ainslie won Olympic silver in the Laser class dinghy in Atlanta in 1996 before clinching gold in the Laser in Sydney in 2000 and gold in the heavier Finn in Athens in 2004.

Shirley Robertson, who won Yngling class gold at the Athens Games, has declined an invitation to be reserve to former crew-mate Sarah Ayton in Qingdao.

Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson edged out her boat to win gold in Cascais, and Robertson said going to China as reserve "just isn't a very good use of time".

She added: "I'd be very disappointed to think that the selection process (for Beijing) is over. We were fast in all conditions and can only get better."

The 2007 Olympic Test Event, officially billed as the Good Luck Beijing 2007 Qingdao International Regatta, will run from 9-24 August at the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Centre.