RELATED STORIES Gwladys Nocera claims third win of 2006 Gwladys Nocera eyes third victory Nocera and Giquel tied for the lead in Catalonia Nocera heads stellar field for the Catalonia Ladies Masters GOLF TODAY TOP STORIES Seve has a brain tumor Schwartzel wins by three Johnson wins Texas Open In-Kyung Kim wins maiden title Weibring clinches title with closing 68 GREAT GIFTS FOR GOLFERS The Pocket Golf Professional Golf Breaks to Portugal & Ireland Half Price Golf Vouchers The Father & Son Golf Ch'ship Best Value Golf Insurance

Gwladys Nocera eyes third victory

French woman Gwladys Nocera claimed a dominant four shot lead heading into the final round of the Catalonia Ladies Masters at Club Golf D'Aro on Spain 's Costa Brava .

On another scorching day in Les Gavarres Mountains , the current European no.1 carded a second consecutive 69 to finish on a total of six-under-par, ahead of Sweden 's Lotta Wahlin.

Nocera, 31, was well placed to collect her third victory of the 2006 season after wins in Switzerland and Italy and she admitted that another title would be a bonus ahead of next week's Evian Masters.

“It would give me a lot of confidence to head to Evian with a hat trick of wins under my belt as it's a big tournament so I'm going to need as much confidence as I can get,” Nocera admitted.

“Right now I'm going to go and hit some balls, go for a run and then I'll stretch my legs so that they don't get too tired for tomorrow.”

Nocera began her second round tied for the lead with fellow country woman Sophie Giquel on three-under-par but after she birdied the fourth and Giquel took a six at the par-four sixth hole, the former Solheim Cup player quickly moved ahead and followed with another birdie at the ninth to make the turn in two-under-par 34.

Nocera bogeyed the short par-three 11 th before carding back-to-back birdies at holes 13 and 14. Had she not missed a 10-foot birdie putt at the last, she would have been five clear. Rueing the missed putt, she said: “The greens are quite bumpy so I didn't always know where the ball was going to go.”

Wahlin, 22, was three-under-par with one hole to play but she bogeyed the par-four 18 th for a 70. Her round included an eagle at the par-four ninth hole, where she holed an eight-iron from 145-yards.

Meanwhile South Africa 's Laurette Maritz , Finland 's Riikka Hakkarainen and Australia 's Sarah Kemp tied for third on level par.

Sophie Giquel of France , who began the day tied for the lead with Nocera, finished tied for sixth position on one-over par after a 76 along with the current Ryder Cup Wales Rookie of the Year Tania Elosegui of Spain and England 's Lisa Hall.

Hall's four-under-par 68 was the lowest score of the day and she finished on an aggregate of one-over-par.

Mardi Lunn, sister of LET Chairman Karen, was caddying for Hall today and Hall commented: “We calculated that we have 33 years of professional playing experience between us so we should know what we're doing.”

This is the third event that Hall has played in on the LET in 2006 and she has also qualified to play in the Weetabix Women's British Open in a fortnight.

She said: “It was less windy and the course has dried up quite a lot from when we first played it on Tuesday.

“I had some good fortune on the par-five eighth-hole. My ball was heading for the out of bounds and it hit a tree and came back in. I made some nice putts and played steady.”

England 's Kirsty S Taylor, who began the day one shot off the lead, began the day well but dropped out of the race after she took an unlucky 13 at the par-five eighth hole. She finished the day on seven-over-par in a tie for 21 st position but was still optimistic. She said: “I've got nothing to lose so I'm going to go for it tomorrow.”