Finn wins U23 Finn Worlds – Oskari Muhonen is world champion

by Robert Deaves on 28 Aug 2017 The 2017 U23 Finn World Championship for the Finn Silver Cup in Balatonfüred draws to a close after another windless day and with Finn, Oskari Muhonen, as the new World Champion. Facundo Olezza, from Argentina, wins the silver and Fionn Lyden, from Ireland, the bronze.

Sailors gathered at the club from 0700 in the morning hoping against hope that the previous night’s forecast of some wind was correct, but it wasn’t to be and AP was soon raised for another day sitting round in the blazing sunshine beside an unblemished lake.

The plug was pulled shortly after 13.00 with no wind expected all day and a cutoff time of 14.30. Even by 17.00 the lake remained motionless with the only movement that of ducks, swimmers and chains of Finns being towed to Balatonföldvár ready for the Opel Finn Gold Cup, which starts on Friday.

Olezza takes silver after a bronze in 2016 and left with a lot of ‘what ifs’ after losing the overall lead on Friday. Lyden, sailing in his first Finn regatta is clearly going to make a name for himself if he keeps up this kind of performance.

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Speaking after the racing was abandoned, Muhonen said, “I expected we were going to sail today but the weather is what it is. It’s a lake so I expected it to be pretty tricky, so it’s as I expected.”

Earlier in the week he said his goal for the event was gold, but did he really expect to win? “Nah, hmm, maybe… I knew I was fast in the light but it’s always pretty good and surprising to win. My downwind in the light is pretty good but also on the upwind I felt I had really good height.”

He is coached by former Olympian Paul McKenzie, and Muhonen places some credit on him. “Paul is a pretty good coach and had a lot of influence on this.”

The Gold Cup is next up for the new World Champion.

“Of course it’s good to have a successful regatta before the Gold Cup, but it’s not the same race area but at least I know I am pretty fast.”

“If we have a northern wind it will be like the other side of the lake so not that shifty. Otherwise, maybe some light and fluky stuff. But we can have harder winds as well. Just before this regatta we had a few days of better breeze and that would be great.”

He feels it is a crucial step on his dream of competing at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020.

“It feels good for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic dream, wining now and I think gives me a lot of confidence for that dream. I think I will work on the harder winds especially on upwind speed and tactics.”

On his chances, “I think it’s pretty good. If I can improve in harder in the hard wind I will stand a pretty good chance.”

To get there he has to overcome several obstacle, and the Finnish team is now as strong as it has been for a generation.

At the very first Silver Cup in 2004, Tapio Nirkko from Finland lifted the trophy in Rio de Janeiro. Fourteen years later, Finland has another Finn youth World Champion in Oskari Muhonen. Nirkko went on to represent Finland in three Olympic Games and is campaigning for a fourth Olympics in Tokyo. His biggest opposition to do that could now come from the young Muhonen.

On being World Champion. “It feels good to win and it’s great. My first world championship title. Pretty amazing.”

Despite the unhelpful weather the MVM SE sailing cub has done an exceptional job looking after everyone. Great food has been laid on every night and the staff has worked tirelessly to keep everyone fed and watered.

The lounge tent on the lawn has been active all day and while the sailors may not have improved their sailing skills as much as they would have liked, their table tennis, volleyball and fuseball skills have improved beyond measure.

The sailors now move across the lake to Balatonföldvár where the Opel Finn Gold Cup, the class world championship will begin next Friday with 124 entries.

Final Results:

1 FIN 8 Oskari Muhonen 20
2 ARG 48 Facundo Olezza 25
3 IRL 22 Fionn Lyden 27
4 GBR 71 Henry Wetherell 30
5 NOR 9 Lars Johan Brodtkorb 41
6 USA 91 Luke Muller 46
7 CZE 5 Ondrej Teply 48
8 SWE 11 Johannes Pettersson 50
9 GBR 96 Hector Simpson 52
10 FRA 9 Guillaume Boisard 52

Results:

Rank	Nat	SailNo	Family name	First name	HelmID	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Total	Nett
1st	FIN	8	Muhonen	Oskari	FINOM4	2.0	(22.0)	8.0	7.0	2.0	1.0	42.0	20.0
2nd	ARG	48	Olezza	Facundo	ARGFO1	1.0	3.0	4.0	6.0	(46.0 UFD)	11.0	71.0	25.0
3rd	IRL	22	Lyden	Fionn	IRLFL9	11.0	4.0	7.0	(12.0)	3.0	2.0	39.0	27.0
4th	GBR	71	Wetherell	Henry	GBRHW23	4.0	7.0	10.0	8.0	1.0	(15.0)	45.0	30.0
5th	NOR	9	Brodtkorb	Lars Johan	NORLB8	13.0	9.0	(19.0)	2.0	14.0	3.0	60.0	41.0
6th	USA	91	Muller	Luke	USALM60	5.0	13.0	5.0	4.0	(46.0 UFD)	19.0	92.0	46.0
7th	CZE	5	Teply	Ondrej	CZEOT1	16.0	1.0	16.0	5.0	10.0	(17.0)	65.0	48.0
8th	SWE	11	Pettersson	Johannes	SWEJP9	10.0	10.0	9.0	13.0	8.0	(46.0 DSQ)	96.0	50.0
9th	GBR	96	Simpson	Hector	GBRHS29	9.0	2.0	11.0	(46.0 DSQ)	23.0	7.0	98.0	52.0
10th	FRA	9	Boisard	Guillaume	FRAGB29	8.0	(20.0)	2.0	14.0	15.0	13.0	72.0	52.0
11th	GER	259	Kasueske	Phillip	GERPK18	3.0	(40.0)	3.0	9.0	18.0	23.0	96.0	56.0
12th	ITA	71	Colaninno	Federico	ITAFC118	21.0	8.0	(28.0)	16.0	11.0	9.0	93.0	65.0
13th	RUS	1	Deev	Evgenii	RUSED1	17.0	16.0	6.0	18.0	9.0	(46.0 RET)	112.0	66.0
14th	ARG	1	Falasca	Santiago	ARGSF1	24.0	19.0	13.0	(25.0)	5.0	6.0	92.0	67.0
15th	ESP	235	Cardona Mendez	Joan	ESPJC70	7.0	23.0	17.0	3.0	(46.0 UFD)	21.0	117.0	71.0
16th	RUS	5	Bugaevskiy	Evgeniy	RUSEB5	14.0	(21.0)	20.0	17.0	6.0	16.0	94.0	73.0
17th	POL	116	Kalafarski	Sebastian	POLSK7	23.0	(38.0)	14.0	1.0	7.0	29.0	112.0	74.0
18th	SUI	38	Theuninck	Nils	SUINT2	22.0	14.0	18.0	11.0	12.0	(30.0)	107.0	77.0
19th	SLO	11	Orel	Liam	SLOLO1	12.0	17.0	(43.0)	15.0	21.0	18.0	126.0	83.0
20th	GBR	81	Skulczuk	James	GBRJS141	25.0	6.0	24.0	(34.0)	25.0	5.0	119.0	85.0
21st	RUS	6	Kistanov	Arkadiy	RUSAK48	(46.0 UFD)	30.0	1.0	20.0	16.0	20.0	133.0	87.0
22nd	ESP	117	Ordonez	Carlos	ESPCO9	26.0	5.0	(39.0)	22.0	30.0	8.0	130.0	91.0
23rd	AUS	32	Calvert	Jock	AUSJC58	20.0	(46.0 UFD)	15.0	21.0	26.0	10.0	138.0	92.0
24th	GER	595	Gorgels	Simon	GERSG14	15.0	(34.0)	25.0	33.0	13.0	14.0	134.0	100.0
25th	GBR	98	Tweedle	Cameron	GBRCT35	(46.0 UFD)	29.0	22.0	24.0	4.0	25.0	150.0	104.0
26th	GBR	707	Dixon	Callum	GBRCD59	6.0	(39.0)	30.0	10.0	22.0	37.0	144.0	105.0
27th	GBR	703	Bettum	Markus	GBRMB118	18.0	15.0	29.0	32.0	(33.0)	12.0	139.0	106.0
28th	AUS	1	Brake	Lewis	AUSLB24	(46.0 UFD)	27.0	12.0	23.0	27.0	22.0	157.0	111.0
29th	GBR	28	Arnell	Jack	GBRJA63	(46.0 UFD)	12.0	46.0 DNE	29.0	29.0	4.0	166.0	120.0
30th	CAN	63	Stevens	Gordon	CANGS21	28.0	18.0	(38.0)	31.0	20.0	27.0	162.0	124.0
31st	SLO	99	Orel	Jan	SLOJO4	36.0	11.0	31.0	26.0	34.0	(39.0)	177.0	138.0
32nd	POL	52	Stromski	Krzysztof	POLKS31	(46.0 UFD)	33.0	23.0	19.0	31.0	32.0	184.0	138.0
33rd	UKR	55	German	Muzychko	UKRGM1	29.0	31.0	(44.0)	27.0	19.0	35.0	185.0	141.0
34th	TUR	35	Akdurak	Can	TURCA8	19.0	(37.0)	35.0	36.0	28.0	24.0	179.0	142.0
35th	FIN	118	Moisio	Waltteri	FINWM1	34.0	35.0	32.0	28.0	17.0	(40.0)	186.0	146.0
36th	POL	50	Winiarski	Szymon	POLSW5	27.0	24.0	36.0	(39.0)	36.0	26.0	188.0	149.0
37th	EST	1	Taveter	Taavi Valter	ESTTT9	(46.0 UFD)	32.0	21.0	35.0	37.0	28.0	199.0	153.0
38th	HUN	911	Haidekker	Elemér	HUNEH2	30.0	36.0	27.0	(39.0 DPI 1)	24.0	36.0	192.0	153.0
39th	HUN	56	Tenke	Martin	HUNMT1	32.0	26.0	37.0	(38.0)	35.0	33.0	201.0	163.0
40th	HUN	80	Németh	Domonkos	HUNDN2	35.0	25.0	(41.0)	41.0	32.0	31.0	205.0	164.0
41st	BUL	83	Menchev	Georgi	BULGM3	39.0	28.0	40.0	37.0	42.0	(46.0 DNF)	232.0	186.0
42nd	BUL	243	Zheglev	Hristo	BULHZ1	33.3 DPI 2	43.3 DPI 2	36.3 DPI 2	(45.3 DPI 2)	40.0	34.0	232.2	186.9
43rd	GBR	26	Stocker	Joe	GBRJS187	33.0	(43.0)	33.0	42.0	38.0	41.0	230.0	187.0
44th	BUL	42	Popov	Svetlin	BULSP2	40.3 DPI 2	(44.3 DPI 2)	28.3 DPI 2	42.3 DPI 2	39.0	38.0	232.2	187.9
45th	ESP	114	Ordonez	David	ESPDS9	37.0	(44.0)	42.0	44.0	41.0	42.0	250.0	206.0