Today saw the leading riders divided into gold, silver and bronze fleets for the two-day finals series, seeded on the basis of the opening exchanges in the qualifiers.

After yesterday’s challenging conditions, the waters were calmer today with breezes between 9 to 11 knots. 

Despite this, there was still some competitive racing with only a few metres separating Frenchmen Parlier and Axel Mazella and Briton Oliver Bridge on several occasions.

Parlier’s dominance came as somewhat of a surprise, especially after saying how much he enjoyed the tougher conditions on day two. 

However, it seems he has now mastered both the heavy and light conditions – making him favourite for the title.

Speaking after today’s events, Parlier said: “It’s definitely been a little bit tighter today.

“It’s mostly between me and Axel Mazella as usual, but now that we’re competing with Olly Bridge and some other good riders, it changes everything.”

There was also drama away from the top of the leaderboard in the gold flight, with reigning IKA Formula Kite World Champion Maxime Nocher, who is currently bottom of the table, colliding with several other riders on the track.

This incident, which was subject to several protest hearings in the jury room, forced American Riley Gibbs and Frenchman Theo Lhostis, who was celebrating his birthday, to withdraw from the day’s racing alongside Nocher.

The women’s fleet was once again dominated by 16-year-old Daniela Moroz from the United States who went on a ten-race winning streak at the start of the day - helping her increase her lead at the top of the table to 14 points.