Pieter-Jan Postma, of The Netherlands, took two decisive race wins to take a five point lead in the Finn Gold Cup with just two races to sail.
Finland’s Oskari Muhonen dropped to second after a start line incident in Race 8 left him in ninth, though he posted a solid second in the second race. Domonkos Nemeth, posted a 6, 4 to move up to third.
Domonkos Nemeth of hungary moves up to third overall after a 6 and 4, but is 20 points off the leading pair.
Postma found second gear Friday to dominate the 110 boat fleet from 17 nations on the fourth day of the event at Fraglia Vela Malcesine on Lake Garda, Italy.
In the first race of the day, Poland’s Bartosz Szydlowski rounded first ahead of Australia’s Rob McMillan and Peter Peet from The Netherlands.
Postma round fourth and was in the lead by the gate to sail away and take his first race win of the day and the regatta.
After a number of U-Flag disqualifications, France’s Valerian Lebrun finished second with Italy’s Marko Kolic in third.
Regatta leader Muhonen, had a start line incident and suffered damage and a leaking boat, which was remedied between races. However he managed to recover to ninth place, despite having a sizeable volume of water in the front tank, also benefitting from several UFDs.
Postma owned the pin in the next race (R8) with the wind starting to increase.
He managed the left well and came into the top with a small lead from Muhonen. Postma extended on the run and on the next upwind for a comfortable lead.
However with Oscar raised for free pumping Muhonen was on the attack and halved the gap before the finish.
Spain’s Miguel Fernandez Vasco just held off Domonkos Németh, from Hungary, for third.
2022 Finn Gold Cup – Leaders after 8 races (110 entries)
1st NED 842 Pieter-Jan POSTMA MasterM 2 2 6 -8 2 3 1 1 – – 17 pts
2nd FIN 8 Oskari MUHONEN SrM 4 1 8 1 5 1 -9 2 – – 22 pts
3rd HUN 80 Domonkos NÉMETH u23M 9 3 -25 12 6 2 6 4 – – 42 pts
4th AUT 3 Raudaschl FLORIAN MasterM 8 -28 4 4 1 8 8 13 – – 46 pts
5th ITA 40 Marko KOLIC SrM 25 -38 1 5 4 5 3 11 – – 54 pts
6th ESP 161 Miguel FERNANDEZ SrM 7 7 33 -66 3 4 10 3 – – 67 pts
7th POR 21 Filipe SILVA MasterM 10 -58 2 36 10 6 7 7 – – 78 pts
8th ITA 115 Roberto STRAPPATI MasterM 6 -32 3 29 8 14 15 9 – – 84 pts
9th FRA 111 Valerian LEBRUN MasterM 13 10 31 RET 25 7 2 12 – – 100 pts
10th ITA 1071 Matteo IOVENITTI SrM 3 15 10 30 9 9 UFD 28 – – 104 pts
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