Philipp Buhl successfully gained revenge for his defeat at the same venue last year and defeated Olympic starter Simon Grotelüschen at the Kieler Woche. In the hard-fought medal race, Buhl benefited from a tactical error by his opponent. Grotelüschen was initially in the lead, but then did not cover Buhl consistently and was soon to regret it. The Bavarian Express, nicknamed "Mr Other Side", seized his chance, took the lead and fought a thrilling duel with Australian Ryan Palk right to the finish, which the German won by half a boat length.
Philipp Buhl celebrated his sweet triumph on the water with clenched fists and a beaming smile. The 22-year-old, who lost to the 25-year-old Grotelüschen in the national Olympic qualification, is already regarded as a great Olympic hope for 2016. Buhl said: "I'm mega-happy that it went this way this time after last year's duel. If you can beat Simon, then that's worth something! But I wish for myself and especially for Simon that I was the last one to beat him this year." In his own way, Buhl wished Grotelüschen a medal at the Olympic Games. The two laser sailors have driven each other bow to bow to ever greater successes in recent years and will train together in the Olympic area off Weymouth until the Olympic Games. But first Buhl will remain loyal to Kiel Week for a few more days and will also be competing with Adalbert Netzer in the second international part of the week in the Flying Dutchman.
There were four German victories this year in the only six Olympic disciplines held on the 130th anniversary of Kieler Woche. The Olympic starters in particular fuelled their self-confidence one last time with their successes. Tobias Schadewaldt and Hannes Baumann won the World Cup final on their doorstep, although they ran aground in the medal race in front of the lido in Strande. Thanks to a furious race to catch up, they still managed third place in the final and their second Kieler Woche victory in a row. The newly formed Berlin crew of Annika Buchmann and Elisabeth Panuschka won the world's largest regatta for the first time, ahead of Tina Lutz and Susann Beucke. Olympic starters Ferdinand Gerz and Patrick Follmann from Munich are also heading for the Olympics with their first Kieler Woche victory in the bag. Helmsman Gerz said: "This victory gives us a very good feeling on the way to Weymouth."
DSV Sports Director Nadine Stegenwalner praised the DSV fleet, even though the fields were traditionally weak in the Olympic year: "These performances have given us joy, hope and a desire for more."
In the Paralympics discipline 2.4mR, Heiko Kröger had to be satisfied with third place, but ended the Kiel Week with optimism after a weak start: "Things are looking up, I'm getting closer to the top of the world again. But I still have a lot of work to do before the Paralympics."
The 17 participants of the German Sailing Championship Inshore in ORC III + IV delivered thrilling races on the sea course. While in ORC I and ORC II "only" one German championship could be organised due to a lack of numbers, which was won by Jochen Schümann's "All4One" (ORC 1) and the Swedish "Team Arken Zoo" with Patrick Forsgen (ORC II), the title fight of the smaller boats got down to business. Victory in the field of 17 yachts was ultimately secured by "RubiX" with helmsman Max Gurgel and a young up-and-coming team from the Hamburg Sailing Club, ahead of "Patent3" with Jens Tschentscher and Oliver Leu's "Blond".
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
