Reigning champion Zsombor Berecz of Hungary, raised the bar for anyone hoping to take his Finn European title, with back-to-back wins on the penultimate day of racing.
Just the day before, Giles Scott had closed the gap to four points and Berecz was coming under pressure, sailing consistantly but without any results in the first three places.
Thursday changed all that.
With his two race wins Berecz opened his lead to 11 points, despite Scott adding a 7 and 2 to retain second place and open a 13 point gap on third placed Nils Theuninck (14,4) of Switzerland.
These three look to be fighting for title and the medals, with Alican Kayner (10,8) of Turkey, moving into fourth place but 11 points from the podium, and Dutchman Nicholas Heiner (4,5) clawing back places to take fifth overall.
First race of the day (R7) went to Berecz, his first race victory at this event, second placed was Sweden’s Max Salminen (2,9) and third Poland’s Piotr Kula (3,26).
With Giles Scott finishing seventh, Berecz opened up a ten point lead on Scott.
The second race win for Berecz came ahead of Scott, with Aussie Jake Lilley crowning a better day with a third place after a sixth in the first race, he is now tenth overall.
Two final races remain for Friday.
Finn Open and U23 Europeans – Leaders after 8 races, 1 discard (49 entries)
1st HUN 40 Zsombor BERECZ – – 4 5 8 -10 6 7 1 1 – – 32 pts
2nd GBR 41 Giles SCOTT – – 5 -37 11 5 12 1 7 2 – – 43 pts
3rd SUI 1 Nils THEUNINCK – – 21 -25 2 11 2 2 14 4 – – 56 pts
4th TUR 21 Alican KAYNAR – – 17 3 16 8 5 -24 10 8 – – 67 pts
5th NED 89 Nicholas HEINER – – 35 1 19 3 1 BFD 4 5 – – 68 pts
6th SWE 33 Max SALMINEN – – 12 12 14 14 9 -16 2 9 – – 72 pts
7th ARG 48 Facundo OLEZZA – – 18 9 9 -24 4 3 18 11 – – 72 pts
8th ESP 26 Joan CARDONA – – 15 4 1 1 BFD 17 23 17 – – 78 pts
9th GBR 71 Henry WETHERELL – – 1 16 17 22 10 5 -27 7 – – 78 pts
10th AUS 1 Jake LILLEY – – 2 32 15 21 -34 9 6 3 – – 88 pts
11th BRA 109 Jorge ZARIF – – -46 8 10 6 13 23 12 19 – – 91 pts
12th FIN 8 Oskari MUHONEN – – -28 22 5 20 7 8 15 18 – – 95 pts
13th GRE 77 Ioannis MITAKIS – – 26 -30 4 26 3 18 24 6 – – 107 pts
14th CAN 18 Thomas RAMSHAW – – 9 2 22 17 18 -27 21 23 – – 112 pts
15th ESP 7 Alejandro MUSCAT – – 24 -26 21 25 16 15 5 12 – – 118 pts
16th CRO 1 Josip OLUJIC – – 25 13 12 18 -28 19 22 10 – – 119 pts
17th CRO 369 Milan VUJASINOVIC – – 14 6 6 2 -33 32 30 30 – – 120 pts
18th CZE 5 Ondrej TEPLY – – 6 15 26 -27 15 25 16 20 – – 123 pts
19th RUS 4 Egor TERPIGOREV – – 8 19 DSQ 16 37 14 8 21 – – 123 pts
20th CRO 10 Nenad BUGARIN – – 10 27 27 15 17 13 OCS 15 – – 124 pts
