After eight races on Lake Balaton, Nemeth, the world under-23 champion, had arrived for the final day's competition having totalled just seven points - seven wins and a discard - to earn a commanding 11-point lead.

Second place on 18 points was held by Laurent Hay of France, whose consistent performance had included four second placings.

Portugal’s Filipe Silva was a distant third on 29 points.

After earning his eighth win in the event in the ninth race, Nemeth, who earned bronze at last year's Finn Gold Cup, had leeway to drop to tenth in final race, knowing he had done enough, finishing with a winning total of 18 points.

Hay, however, pushed him all the way, finishing third in the ninth race and winning the last race to reach 22 points.

Silva fell away on the final day and faded to fifth place on 67.

Italy’s Alessandro Marega moved up to take the final podium place on 42 points, with a second home athlete, Elemer Peter Haidekker, finishing strongly to take fourth place on 49 points.

The competition will be remembered for an incident that took place on the penultimate day of racing when Hungary’s Tibor Pallay rescued fellow Finn sailor Tomas Mihalik from Slovakia, who had become detached from his boat following a capsize. 

Pallay fished his opponent out of the water and delivered him back to his boat before finishing the race. 

He was later granted redress back to the tenth place he had abandoned and he finished tenth overall.

Finn sailing, introduced to the Olympics in 1952, made its last appearance at the Tokyo 2020 Games before being dropped from the programme for Paris 2024.