Kieler Woche: Reunion in Kiel: German Sailing Team off to a flying start

Laser vice world champion Philipp Buhl is one of the figureheads of German sailing performance. The 28-year-old from Sonthofen opened the hunt for his fifth Kieler Woche title on Wednesday. The national sailing team's active spokesman announced: "I'm making no secret of it: I want to win the last event here before the World Championships in Aarhus in August and take as much self-confidence with me as possible." The Allgäuer laid the foundation for this on Wednesday afternoon: with 5th and 3rd place overall, Buhl got off to a good start in the five-day series.

The two German 470 women's crews Nadine Boehm/Ann-Christin Goliaß from the German Touring Yacht Club and the young Hamburg crew Fabienne Oster/Anastasiya Winkel got off to an ideal start, taking the top two places on the first day. In the Nacra 17, Paul Kohlhoff and Alica Stuhlemmer impressed in their first regatta together this year. The crew have only been training together again for two and a half months following Kohlhoff's serious operation and recovery and are heading for the World Championship in Aarhus with the German Sailing Team. In ninth place overall after the first three races, the local heroes have already left some well-known teams behind them and hinted at what they are capable of. Johannes Polgar and Carolina Werner are in 14th place after the first day of their first Kiel Week together and are also preparing in Kiel for the World Championship in Denmark.

Rio bronze medallists Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel, on the other hand, still found it somewhat difficult to get back into competition. The most successful German 49er duo only resumed training a few months ago after a long break and intensive studies and are in 22nd place after the first three races in their home waters. "We took everything we could today," Heil reported with a smile, "a huge crash in the first race, a capsize in the second because a construction site opened up in front of us. There are a lot of crews here who race across the course quite uncontrollably from 15 knots upwards." Heil said he was not happy about the first results. "But we only resumed training a few months ago and the goal is the World Championship." The crew wants to get back into the second Olympic campaign in autumn.

In the 49erFX, the European champions Tina Lutz (Holzhausen) and Susann Beucke (Strande) initially placed fifth. Berliners Victoria Jurczok and Anika Lorenz will start their race to catch up on day two from 18th place. In the para-sailing disciplines 2.4mR and Hansa 303, the well-known guarantors of success Heiko Kröger (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein) and Jens Kroker (Yachtclub Berlin-Grünau) took first and second place.

Due to the large number of participants this year, some Olympic courses at Kiel Week are being sailed in groups and in alternating shifts according to an elaborate schedule, meaning that some disciplines were still in use in the evening and the results took much longer than usual. Some strong to stormy winds are expected for the coming days.

Click here for the results.