Muhonen, Cardona and Theuninck win medals at Finn U23 Worlds

A day early, Oskari Muhonen, from Finland, led all the way in the final race to record one of the biggest winning margins of the week. A third place finish from Joan Cardona, of Spain, was enough for the silver medal, while a second place for Nils Theuninck, from Switzerland, was enough for the bronze.

Like Muhonen, Liam Orel, from Slovenia, had already won the U19 gold, while behind him Italians Paolo Freddi and Roberto Rinaldi were fighting for the other medals. Finishing next to each other in the final race, Freddi took silver with Rinaldi taking bronze for a double home medal. The final race was also sailed in light winds after a short postponement ashore.

Muhonen started at the boat end, tacked away to the right and was already clear ahead at the first cross to lead the fleet round in the patchy 5-7 knots breeze and extended almost every leg for a confident win.

He was followed around the top mark by Oskar Adamiak, from Poland, and Mikhail Iatsun, from Russia. Cardona was not far behind and was soon chasing the leaders. With the shifty, puffy and difficult wind, there were many place changes and finally the main contenders emerged ahead with Theuninck just getting the inside overlap on the final gate to lead Cardona to the finish, though a long way behind Muhonen. Top Italian, Federico Colaninno, could only manage 12th, and dropped from second to fourth overall.