France finished top of the medals table at the Hyeres Sailing World Cup ©World Sailing

Hosts France finished top of the medals table with seven in total, and four golds, after six days of racing concluded today in World Sailing’s 2018 World Cup Series at Hyères.

Poland secured two golds and a bronze, with New Zealand taking five medals home - one gold, two silver and two bronze

Marit Bouwmeester of The Netherlands in the laser radial and Anton Dahlberg and Fredrik Bergström of Sweden in the men’s 470 class went into today’s Medal Races certain of gold.

But with consistent wind conditions allowing all five Olympic disciplines to be concluded, results in the three remaining fleets still open to doubt.

Home nation favourite Jean Baptiste Bernaz claimed his first Hyères World Cup Series gold medal after controlling New Zealand’s Sam Meech in the laser.

Ahead of the medal race, only Meech could overhaul the Frenchman and Bernaz did an exceptional job covering his rival at the start and keeping him at bay during the race.

"I was 14 points ahead and could lose my first place, so I had to keep close to Sam Meech the entire race," said Bernaz.

"It was a great fight and I managed to keep him in the bad wind behind me."

Tom Burton of Australia took the bronze medal.

Bouwmeester, already winner in the laser radial, signed off the week in dominant fashion by winning her medal race convincingly.

"I haven't been racing much since the Olympics, so for me, it was just another competition to use as training for the World Championships in Aarhus," said Bouwmeester.

"I've been injured but my body has finally recovered, and I am just happy to do a full programme again.

"I raced in Palma, Hyères and next week I'll be at the Laser Europeans."

Monika Mikkola of Finland took silver, ahead of Paige Railey of the United States.

Gold was within reach in the Finn class for Nicholas Heiner of The Netherlands, Jorge Zarif of Brazil and Alican Kaynar of Turkey.

Zarif moved clear early on to claim the main prize, but there was a huge battle between the other two contenders before Heiner took silver with a final effort.

France's Camille Lecointre and Aloise Retornaz held off a strong challenge from Britain’s Hannah Mills and Eilidh McIntyre to win the women's 470.

The French needed to keep the British team within touching distance to win the gold medal and straight from the start they matched the British pair in every move to ensure they did not get away to pose a title threat.

The British finished eighth, and 10th place was enough to earn the fourth French victory of the regatta.

China's Mengxi Wei and Haiyan Gao needed to put one boat between them and Japan's Ai Kondo Yoshida and Miho Yoshioka to take the final podium spot.

The Chinese did what they had to do to claim the bronze medal by taking the medal race win.

France's Camille Lecointre and Aloise Retornaz held off a strong challenge from Britain’s Hannah Mills and Eilidh McIntyre to win the Women's 470.class at Hyères ©World Sailing
France's Camille Lecointre and Aloise Retornaz held off a strong challenge from Britain’s Hannah Mills and Eilidh McIntyre to win the Women's 470.class at Hyères ©World Sailing

Sweden's Dahlberg and Bergström completed their week in the men's 470 class by maintaining their record of not finishing outside of the top five.

"It's been a difficult week but lucky for us, we've been sailing really well so before the last race yesterday we already knew that we've won," said Dahlberg.

"We could just go out there today and enjoy a nice medal race with the top boats in the 470 fleet."

Mat Belcher and Will Ryan of Australia won the silver medal ahead of Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Wilcox of New Zealand.

All of the Hyères gold medallists will automatically receive an invitation to the Marseille World Cup Final, set to be held 85 kilometres down the coast from June 5 until 10.