Finn Focus - 2010 SOF - Misura and Wright lead Finns after day four

12:24 AM Thu 29 Apr 2010 GMT

'Marin Misura (CRO)- (Photo Robert Deaves)' Finn Class &copy

Day four at the SOF Hyeres brought the familiar pattern of early morning postponements and waiting for the wind, but then the unexpected happened and the Finn fleet got in three races. Yes you read that right. Three races. After the scores were counted up, Marin Misura (CRO) had taken the overall lead from Ed Wright (GBR) and Thomas Le Breton (FRA).

It was not a day without problems though as the wind came and went, and the fleet had a very long day on the water, with race five of what is rapidly becoming a series starting at a rather uncivilised 17.44.

Misura took the first race in probably the lightest conditions of the day. Back on form, he recently won the Split Olympic Sailing Week and will clearly be a contender at the Europeans in his home waters next month. He was followed over the line by Le Breton and Rafal Szukiel (POL).

With a scoreline so far of 4-26-8, the current leader of the Sailing World Cup, Ed Wright (GBR) wasn't doing himself many favours, but a win in face four - together with a fifth in race five - was enough to being him right back into contention. He ended the day on equal points with Misura and in second place overall.

Rafa Trujillo (ESP) turned his poor series around in race four with a second place to move up to fifth overall, with Le Breton posting another good score in third to end the day in third.

The final late race was won by Jonathan Lobert (FRA), who recently finished third in Palma and won races in Miami. Together with training partner Le Breton, these two are redefining French Finn sailing and get better at each regatta.

Lobert's score of 4-7-1 was in fact the best score of the day and moved him from 11th to seventh overall. Szukiel rounded off a good day with a second place to discard his BFD from race one and jump up to eighth place overall. Alexey Selivanov (RUS) picked up a third place in the final race of the day.

On Thursday the final qualification races will be sailed to select the top 10 for Friday's medal race. With just 21 points between first and tenth, the battle for some may be only just beginning.

Ed Wright (GBR) Finn Class - 2010 Semaine Olympique Fran?aise, Hy?res, France - Guillaume Durand

Results after 5 races, one discard

1 CRO 25 Misura, Marin 18.00
2 GBR 11 Wright, Edward 18.00
3 FRA 115 Le Breton, Thomas 23.00
4 CRO 524 Kljakovic, G Ivan 25.00
5 ESP 100 Trujillo, Rafael 30.00
6 SLO 5 Vincec, Gasper 31.00
7 FRA 112 Lobert, Jonathan 32.00
8 POL 7 Szukiel, Rafal 34.00
9 USA 4 Railey, Zach 36.00
10 RUS 9 Skornyakov, Eduard 39.00

Event website: sof.ffvoile.net
Class website: www.finnclass.org

by Robert Deaves