129th Kiel Week: 3,000 athletes on the fjord - home match for the national team
Tatjana Pokorny
· 17.06.2023
The 129th Kiel Week opened at 1.24 pm on Saturday afternoon. The starting signal for the nine-day regatta week was given on the stage at the Olympic Centre in Schilksee. Prominent guests included Head of Sport Dirk Ramhorst, offshore sailor Sanni Beucke, Rodion Luka as President of the Ukrainian Sailing Association, Head of Press Andreas Kling, Schleswig-Holstein's Minister of the Interior and Sport Sabine Sütterlin-Waack, Kiel's Lord Mayor Ulf Kämpfer and the President of Cape Verde, Ulisses Correia e Silva.
The lively and colourfully flagged Kieler Woche heart chamber in Kiel-Schilksee welcomed the athletes, the organisers, the international guests and the visitors under a bright blue Kiel sky. In sporting terms, the race initially got underway in slow motion with a few postponements as the wind was very slow to pick up.
We are in conflict with two major events" (Dirk Ramhorst)
With around 3,000 sailors, this year's Kieler Woche will not be able to match previous participation figures of over 4,000. The most important German sailing series has suffered a bloodletting, especially in the first half of the Olympic season. Here, only around 500 sailors are competing for Kieler Woche victories.
"We are in conflict with two major events," said Dirk Ramhorst. The Head of Sport at Kieler Woche is alluding to the Olympic test regatta in Marseille from 7 July and the Sailing World Championships for all Olympic disciplines held every four years in The Hague in August. "The cycles in which the sailors prepare for these season highlights are difficult to reconcile with participation in Kiel Week," explained Ramhorst.
Tight training schedules keep stars from Kiel Week starts
Like the Danish Ilca 6 Olympic champion Anne-Marie Rindom or the Italian Nacra 17 Olympic champions Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti, who had initially entered for Kiel Week but then withdrew their entries shortly beforehand due to overlaps with their training windows for the annual highlights, many top international crews felt the same way this year.
However, the tight schedule will not stop the best members of the national sailing team from travelling to their home waters. Although Laser world champion Philipp Buhl is missing because the helmsman from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein is competing in the Moth World Championship in the former British Olympic sailing area off Weymouth at the same time, club mate and iQFoil world champion Sebastian Kördel will be there.
It's really nice for Nastja and me to compete in a home event in a family environment" (Malte Winkel)
The strong German 470 mixed training group with the world champions Luise Wanser/Philipp Autenrieth (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein/Bayerischer Yacht-Club), the vice European champions Simon Diesch/Anna Markfort (Württembergischer Yacht-Club/Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee) and the Kiel Week title defenders Malte and Anastasiya Winkel (Schweriner Yacht-Club/Norddeutscher Regatta Verein), who qualified for the Pre-Olympics, will also be competing on the fjord.
Malte Winkel said before the first start: "We have just returned from training in Marseille. Together with the German 470 training group, we decided to start at Kieler Woche. It's really nice for Nastja and me to compete in a home event in a familiar environment. Kiel Week is a very nice event for our partners and the clubs." 470 Mixed World Champion Philipp Autenrieth agrees: "For us, it's a World Cup in Kiel and we really enjoy being here."
It's important for us that we can race. Kiel Week is a nice home game" (Paul Kohlhoff)
With Paul Kohlhoff and Alica Stuhlemmer (Kieler Yacht-Club), the Olympic bronze medallists from Japan are also taking part on their own doorstep despite their qualification for the Olympic test regatta. Kohlhoff said with regard to the small field of Nacra 17 catamarans: "It is important for us that we can race. This makes Kiel Week a nice home game for us and a good training ground. Especially in the light winds at the start, where we still have some homework to do."
Kieler Woche sports director Dirk Ramhorst is just as positive about the nine-day series: "I'm very optimistic. The harbour is well filled. We are not as big as we would like to be, we have other ambitions. Nevertheless, we are looking forward to an excellent week, for which we already had a good lead-up with the very successful Ocean Race fly-by a week ago."
To get you in the mood for the 129th Kiel Week: a look back at Kiel Week 2022:
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
