Giles Scott (GBR) has convincingly and unflinchingly shown that
he is still the man to beat in the Finn Class as the 2015 season gets
underway. Finishing a close second in the medal race at the end of the
Sailing World Cup Miami, Scott wrapped up his eighth consecutive major
win in the class and defends the title he won this time last year. A third place from Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic (CRO) was enough to hold onto
silver, while a sparking race win from Jake Lilley (AUS) moved him ahead
of Ioannis Mitakis (GRE) to take the bronze.
The Finns were the first class to start the medal race day in Miami.
With 15 knots from the east it was a fitting end to a great week of
racing. And it was an incredibly close race. All boats finished the
25-minute race within 40 seconds. That is pretty close racing by any
standards.
Starting at the pin, Jake Lilley (AUS) won the start and as soon as he
was clear, tacked and crossed the fleet to lead around the top mark from
Scott and Piotr Kula (POL). Scott briefly took the lead at the gate,
but Lilley again led at the top mark, if only by 1 second. He kept his
lead downwind to cross first, from Scott and Kljakovic Gaspic.
Going into the day in third overall, Ioannis Mitakis (GRE), rounded the
top mark in sixth but then dropped to ninth by the finish. The only
person who could have taken a medal away from him was Lilley, and he had
to be six places in front. It was a big ask, but in the end Lilley was
eight places in front and took the bronze medal. Mitakis ended up fourth
overall.
The last time Scott was beaten at a major Finn event was April 2013 in
Hyeres. He was second. In fact he has only been off the podium once
since 2010, and this is his third win in Miami.
He won five races out of 11 and a bad day for him would have been a
great day for any other sailor, ending with a winning margin of 25
points. His relaxed style of sailing is disarming, but deadly, and
unless the rest of the felt start to catch up soon he is going to
continue his clean sweep of events.
Final comments from Scott, “I just had a good week, and we've been
lucky to get some good racing in here especially after a bit of
disappointing weather last year. On to the next one…”
Silver medalist Kljakovic Gaspic had too much to do in the medal race,
coming into the day 23 points behind Scott. He had a bumpy start to the
week and then a DSQ in race 4 didn’t help matters. But he turned it
around in the second half of the week amassing identical points to Scott
over the final six qualification races. Kljakovic Gaspic is one of the
most focussed sailors on the circuit and very focussed on the task in
hand – a medal in Rio – and you get the impression there is a lot more
to come from the double European Champion.
He said on Saturday’s race, “Just an ordinary medal race. The idea
was to stay close to Giannis and Jake. After Giannis was left behind on
first run I just made sure to stay close to Giles and Jake in front. My
speed was good so I could keep a close contact to them.”
Bronze medallist Jake Lilley (AUS) held second place for the first four
days here, but fell at the final hurdle and amassed a lot of points in
the light and shifty Friday races to drop to fourth, 11 points outside a
medal. It needed something special to turn that around, so to come out
and win the medal race is quite an achievement. He is the youngest
sailor here and with his coach John Bertrand (USA) they are making
steady progress. Lilley only joined the class in 2013 and is one of its
fastest rising stars. Only time will tell whether he can continue this
momentum, though you get the feeling he will.
A wrap would not be complete without further mention to Mitakis, who has
sailed an exceptional week. After winning the 2012 Europeans in light
winds, he had made his mark, but struggled to repeat the form on a
regular basis. One highlight was eighth at the 2013 World Championship,
again in generally light winds. In Miami this week he has held his own
in most conditions and showed his speed potential in the 10-14 knot
range. If only there were four medals up for grabs: he fully deserved
one.
It has been an interesting week in Miami and with more than half the
major players here a good indication of form as the circuit now moves
onto Europe.
Results after medal race (medal race positions in brackets)
1 GBR 41 Giles Scott 27 (2)
2 CRO 524 Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic 52 (3)
3 AUS 41 Jake Lilley 60 (1)
4 GRE 77 Ioannis Mitakis 65 (9)
5 SLO 573 Vasilij Zbogar 78 (4)
6 POL 17 Piotr Kula 95 (7)
7 GBR 11 Edward Wright 96 (5)
8 ITA 146 Michele Paoletti 107 (6)
9 USA 6 Caleb Paine 108 (8)
10 AUS 261 Oliver Tweddell 108 (10)
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