128th Kiel Week: The Olympians are off!: "Enjoy Kiel Week to the full once again"

Tina Lutz and Susann Beucke sailed to silver in Enoshima in 2021, now they are ending their Olympic career after 15 years in the same boat. The 49er FX skiff sailors opened their Kiel Week farewell gala with a victory in the first race. After the first four races, the duo was initially in fourth place at the crossroads. Lutz/Beucke had to pay tribute to their long training backlog, as they had not sailed together on the planing dinghy since the Olympic Games until shortly before Kiel Week. Tina Lutz said after the challenging start with four races in the best wind and weather conditions: "In the first race we sailed on the right side after a good start. That was enough to win. After that, we realised that the manoeuvres were not quite as lively. And now I'm pretty exhausted." Her foresailor Susann Beucke added: "The communication on board was great. We worked well together again straight away."

Goodbye, farewell and goodbye!

The two 31-year-old sailors from Bavaria and northern Germany, who first got into a boat together on Valentine's Day 2007, will be saying goodbye at the 128th Kieler Woche. The skiff sailors crowned their sporting partnership as Olympic silver medallists on 3 August 2021 after losing two Olympic qualifiers and winning two European Championships. Tina Lutz is getting married in July and has made a career start in the HR department of a large company. She remains loyal to the sport as a national league sailor for her home club Chiemsee Yacht-Club and as a coach. "I want to encourage the kids to go their own way and listen to their hearts," says Lutz.

Susann Beucke switched to offshore sailing at the beginning of the year. Since then, the new sea sailor has been training in Breton waters in the very demanding Figaro class with French sailors. "It's all about sailing," she explains her choice of boat, "I've ventured into the shark tank. It's not very pleasant because you're always shown all your weaknesses. But I want to learn and gain important experience here." In Kiel this week, Susann Beucke announced a long-term partnership with the logistics group DB Schenker for her campaign "This race is female". In the sternwaters of Boris Herrmann, Beucke is aiming to take part in the next but one Vendée Globe in 2028/2029. Commenting on her Olympic farewell, Beucke said: "Tina and I had a wonderful time with lots of highs and are leaving the lows behind. We now want to enjoy our favourite regatta Kieler Woche to the full once again."

More top athletes are in action for the German Sailing Team in the second half of the Olympics. Luise Wanser (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein) and Philipp Autenrieth (Bayerischer Yacht-Club), who have already been so successful this year in the new Olympic discipline 470 Mixed, opened their home match off Kiel with a race win and were in second place after three races behind the Swiss Yves Mermod and Maja Siegenthaler, who benefited from the first stringer (11th place) after just three races with two wins on the day. In third and fourth place, Malte and Anastasiya Winkel as well as Theres Dahnke and Matti Cipra also had a promising start to the competition on their own training ground.

In the absence of world champion Philipp Buhl (Sonthofen), Ilca-7 helmsman Nik Aaron Willim from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein leads the largest Olympic field at Kiel Week with 98 boats after the first day of racing. Windsurfer Sebastian Kördel (NRV) won the opening race of the new Olympic iQFoiler. The Kiel Nacra 17 bronze medallists Paul Kohlhoff and Alica Stuhlemmer, on the other hand, did not immediately return to their successful course. "We missed six weeks of sailing. Our package is competitive, but we're not really polished yet. Our starts were subterranean today," said helmsman Paul Kohlhoff (26), who became a father for the first time in May. His team finished eighth in the Kieler Woche fleet of fast foiling Olympic catamarans, which included all three Olympic medal crews. Click here for all results of the Kieler Woche (please click!).