470 European Championship 2021: German 470 sailors in attacking mood at the start of the European Championships

The German 470 sailors started the European Championships off Vilamoura with an aggressive attitude: In the new 470 mixed discipline, which will not be an Olympic event until 2024, the newly formed crew Theres Dahnke/Matti Cipra catapulted themselves into second place after finishing 16th with a win on the day and a second place at the start. The fact that the two have known each other since their childhood days in the Plau water sports club and harmonise perfectly seems to have already had an effect on their first major regatta outing.

In the women's 470, which is still an Olympic event this summer, Luise Wanser and Anastasiya Winkel, who have just qualified for the Olympics, did not let the narrow early start in their first joint European Championship race throw them off course. Nor did the fact that their coach Riccardo de Felice broke several ribs in a sports accident after training and has been hospitalised since Wednesday. Anastasiya's husband and 470 helmsman Malte Winkel has stood in for him. In addition, the foresailor herself is slightly ill. Despite everything, the dynamic duo from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein moved up to fifth place after the early start disqualification with fourth and fifth place.

"What doesn't kill you makes you tougher"

"What doesn't kill you makes you tougher," said Luise Wanser on the evening after the first day of the regatta in the current European regatta stronghold of Vilamoura. The 23-year-old from Hamburg continued: "It's so cool to finally have another European Championship. The last one was in 2019, and if you put everything together, we're super happy with this first day. Of course, the early start wasn't good, but that's something you have to practise: sailing for a week knowing that you can't afford to have any more strikes." The desire to sail in regattas remains high: "We're looking forward to tomorrow!"

A total of 81 teams from 25 countries are competing in the three competitions at the 470 European Championships. The quality is high at this European Championship: 34 of the men's and women's crews qualified for the Olympic regatta are currently in action in Portugal. For the new mixed formations, these are the historic first continental title fights. Nitai Hasson and Saar Tamir from Israel are in the lead ahead of Theres Dahnke/Matti Cipra and three British teams. In the women's field, France's Camille Lecointre/Aloise Retornaz are the frontrunners ahead of Olympic champion Hannah Mills with Eilidh McIntyre from Great Britain. In the men's event, Spain's Jordi Xammar/Nicolas Rodriguez are in the lead after day one.

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