The racing schedule at the Finn Open Europeans in Athens is back on track with three more races completed on Thursday May 16 and one day remaining for Australia’s Jake Lilley to make the medal race cut. 

From Athens Lilley said of day four: “Late start today with another building sea breeze.  I put together two really solid races to start the day. It was a day of traffic management and trying to pick the breeze with plenty of chop. 

“The wind started to and continued to recede for the entire third race and I was buried pretty deep. It’s been a hefty points regatta so far so looking forward to a good fight tomorrow and try make the top 10 medal race.”

There was some déjà vu in the morning, the fleet held ashore again with too little wind on the racecourse. As the wind increased and the fleet was released they managed three races in a range of conditions. The first race started in 7-9 knots, Oscar was raised at the top mark and the wind continued to increase to 12-14 knots over the afternoon before dropping in the middle of the final race to around 5 knots.

The top three overall are starting to show signs of pulling away, with a 30-point gap on the fleet, but the medal race split and the Tokyo 2020 qualification is still incredibly tight. Two final races will complete the opening series before the medal race on Saturday.

Eighty-four sailors from 33 nations are contesting the 2019 Open Finn European Championship hosted by the Hellenic Sailing Federation in Athens. 

Live tracking is available through YouTube on the event website: 2019.finneuropeans.org

Results at: http://www.eio.gr/athens-international-sailing-center/item/5042-finn-2019-european-championship-results

Australian Sailing Team results: 

15th Jake Lilley 24, 29, 13, 36, 2, 9, 13, (53) = 126 points
53rd Jock Calvert 52, 36, 42, (BFD), 40, 55, 46, 43 = 314 points

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Photography: Robert Deaves