Australian Sailing Squad’s Jake Lilley has qualified for Saturday’s top-ten medal race with a sixth place at the end of the opening series and penultimate day of the Olympic Finn class world championship in Melbourne on Friday. 
 
On the final day of the series, Rio Olympian Lilley put in his best two races of the event so far and finished the day with a second and fourth place in the two races of the day. 

With the world championships also doubling up as the Tokyo 2020 Oceania Continental qualifier and Lilley the top Australian to qualify for the medal race, he also secured Australia a quota spot in the Finn class.
 
The only other Oceania participant at the world champs, New Zealand, who qualified two sailors for the medal race with Josh Junior leading the fleet and Andy Maloney sitting in fifth, already secured their quota spot at the 2018 World Sailing Championships. 
 
It was a hot and challenging day of racing at the 2019 Finn Gold Cup at Royal Brighton Yacht with Melbourne recording one of his hottest December days on record and with temperatures reaching up to 44C.
 
With the wind coming from the North and blowing off the land, Aussie summer threw some challenges to sailors and on water teams alike with the hot and dusty conditions and changing winds making for a battle with the elements.
 
“We had a pretty funky northerly wind today which really heated things up for everyone. I got on alright and finished with a two and a four so really happy with that in the tricky conditions,” Lilley said, who also credited his local knowledge for his strong performance. 
 
“In the first race I was just in the game the whole time, took shifts back up wind and had a good downwind and just chipped away at it. In the second race a bit of local knowledge came into it and I could feel the change on the cards, so I went for it and then consolidated for the rest of the race.” 

“It’s really tricky when it’s blowing off the land here, it’s really hot and there is a lot of dust in the air and the wind shifting all over the place and when you get a good feeling and a good vibe for it, it makes it a bit easier,” Lilley added. 
 
“The throat is a bit dry with the dust in the air and it’s 44 degrees. It makes it tough but I think that brings out the best in this class. I’m sure everyone enjoyed it and we all had great racing. You can’t ask for much more and going into the medal race tomorrow there’s still plenty to fight for. I also qualify Australia automatically for the continental spot so it’s good to get that job done,” Lilley said about securing the country quota spot for Australia. 
 
Fellow Australian Sailing Squad’s Finn sailor Oliver Tweddell (VIC) finished the opening series with his best result of the regatta, a tenth place in the last race, and dropping the 43rd place of the first race of the day, he moved up one spot and will go into Saturday’s final race ranked 23rd. 
 
In other top-40 Australian results Lachlan Gilham (WA) finished the opening series ranked 35th, Lewis Brake (QLD) kept his overall 38th while Jock Calvert (TAS) dropped into 41st. 
Finishing 28th in the final race of the series, Brake had a strong finish in the world class fleet. 
 
“The first two days of the regatta were a little bit light and as the breeze picked up my performance got a bit better which is quite nice. Today the shifty and flat water meant that it was not completely a speed race but there was a little bit more thinking and it was nice to finish the qualifying series with a good result,” Brake said.  
 
“It’s the world championships. It’s pretty nice to have so many good guys to watch and we are all mates here so we have a really good atmosphere and everyone is friends and it’s just really tight, solid racing,” Brake added about the world’s best racing in Melbourne. 
 
And about the challenging conditions on the penultimate day he added, “on the water it was a little bit cooler with the breeze and the water temperature is still quite nice but when the breeze started to drop it really heated up and a lot of bodies were cooking with many of the guys jumping into the water. That’s when you know it’s getting up into the extremes for the Finn fleet.”
 
Three races were scheduled for the final day of the opening series, but after the wind became increasingly unstable after two races, further racing was abandoned and sailors were sent ashore after four hours on the water. 
 
A fleet of 60 Finns from 23 nations are competing to win the 2019 Finn world championship.
 
Saturday will be the final day of the event with a final race scheduled for the fleet ranked 11 and above from 12:00. The top ten medal race will conclude the event. 
 
In overall results, Josh Junior, from New Zealand, has extended his lead at the Finn Gold Cup to 16 points with just the medal race to sail. Nicholas Heiner, from The Netherlands is up to second with Zsombor Berecz from Hungary in third.
 
Two of three races scheduled were completed with Day 4 leader Junior picking up a 16th, 8 and Heiner finishing 8, 3. Heiner’s third place in race nine moved him up into second place. The gold will be decided between them while the battle over the other medals will be decided between Heiner, Berecz, Giles Scott, from Britain, and New Zealand’s Andy Maloney.
 
RACE 8
Berecz won the first race of the day, leading the race from start to finish. He battled throughout the first lap with Britain’s Ed Wright, who dropped back to seventh at the end, while Australia’s Jake Lilley had his best race of the championship so far and finished second. Ondrej Teply, from Czech Republic, followed in third. Tom Ramshaw, from Canada, finished fourth with Scott in fifth. Leader Josh Junior as well as fellow Kiwi Andy Maloney put in their highest score of the opening series finishing 16th and 21st respectively. 
 
RACE 9
Race 9 also got underway the first time in 13-15 knots with Spain’s Joan Cardona leading at the first top mark ahead of Australia’s Oliver Tweddell and Heiner. By the bottom gate Alejandro Muscat, from Spain, had taken over the lead with Turk, Alican Kaynar, in second and Cardona back in third. Kaynar built his lead at the final top mark to take out the race win with Cardona crossing in second ahead of Heiner. Jake Lilley finished fourth ahead of Muscat in fifth.
 
An attempt was made to start the third and final race, but the wind was becoming increasingly unstable and had dropped to 8-9 knots with big wind shifts. After 30 minutes waiting, further racing was abandoned.
 
Overall results: http://sailingresults.net/sa/results/overall.aspx?ID=80280.2

Australian Sailing Squad Results
Jake Lilley (QLD): (19), 14, 16, 11, 6, 8, 8, 2, 4 – 6 
Oliver Tweddell (VIC): 22, 17, 24, 15, 23, 15, 35, (42), 10 – 24 
 
Other top-40 Australian Results
Lachlan Gilham (WA): 31, 20, 34, 24, 34, 32, 38, (44), 34 – 35
Lewis Brake (QLD): 55, 40, 43, (46), 34, 29, 34, 36, 39, 28 – 38
Jock Calvert (TAS): 41, 38, 25, (44), 40, 40, 42, (45). 38 – 41
 
Overall Results after 9 races
1 NZL 24 Josh Junior 30pts
2 NED 89 Nicholas Heiner 46
3 HUN 40 Zsombor Berecz 49
4 GBR 41 Giles Scott 51
5 NZL 61 Andy Maloney 61
6 AUS 1 Jake Lilley 70
7 CAN 18 Tom Ramshaw 75
8 CRO 10 Nenad Bugarin 82
9 ESP 26 Joan Cardona Méndez 86
10 TUR 1 Alican Kaynar 92

All results: http://sailingresults.net/?ID=80280

ABOUT THE 2019 FINN GOLD CUP
The 2019 Finn Gold Cup is being held at the Royal Brighton Yacht Club, on Port Philip, in Melbourne, Australia, one of the host clubs for the 1956 Olympic Games.  It is the world championship for the Olympic Finn Class. 

It is the fourth time that the state of Victoria has hosted the prestigious Finn Gold Cup after 1995, 1999 and 2008, which is more than any other location in the event's 64-year history. It is the start to Melbourne’s 2020 Summer of Sailing with Port Phillip hosting a series of Olympic class World Championships over the coming months.

More than 60 sailors from 22 nations are competing for the famous Finn Gold Cup over 11 races from Monday 16 to Saturday 21 December.

For more information see https://2019.finngoldcup.org and https://www.finnclass.org

Photo credit: Robert Deaves