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Ilca 6 World ChampionshipJulia Büsselberg opens the Olympic year with a World Championship race win

Tatjana Pokorny

 · 06.01.2024

Julia Büsselberg started the Ilca 6 World Championship off Mar del Plata in Argentina with a race win
Photo: Matias Capizzano
Many athletes dream of a start to the Olympic year like this. On day one of the Ilca 6 World Championships, Julia Büsselberg from Berlin took the lead by winning the only opening race. The successful opening in the field of 102 helmswomen from 46 countries motivates the helmswoman from the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club for the series in the Argentinian waters off Mar del Plata

The Olympic sailing season is open! The World Championship of the Ilca-6 women helmsmen has begun in the Argentinian waters off Mar del Plata. With a victory in the first race, Julia Büsselberg from Berlin took the lead at the start. In unstable winds of between eight and ten knots, she achieved a success with a fighting touch.

Above all, the way I fought my way forward after a not-so-good start motivates me for the coming days" (Julia Büsselberg)

"I'm very happy with my start. Above all, the way I worked my way forward after a not-so-good start motivates me for the coming days," said the 23-year-old Ilca 6 helmswoman in Argentina. The 2023 German champion is not only fighting for the best possible position at the Ilca 6 World Championships in Argentina, but also for her Olympic start.

At the opening of the World Championships, the top athlete from the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club left all the World Championship favourites behind her under a dark grey sky in the rain and in demanding waves. Julia Büsselberg leads the rankings together with Norway's Line Flem Hoest, who came out on top in her preliminary round group.

The German Ilca 6 helmswomen fight for an Olympic ticket

Olympic champion Anne-Marie Rindom finished fifth in the first intermediate World Championship classification. The reigning world champion Maria Erdi finished 31st. Marit Bouwmeester, three-time Olympic medallist and 2016 Olympic champion from the Netherlands, finished no higher than 45th at the opening of the World Championship series organised by Yacht Club Argentino.

However, Julia Büsselberg did not want to overemphasise her impressive start to the World Championships: "It was just the beginning and the regatta is still a long way off. I'll watch race by race and continue to do my best." For the German Ilca 6 women's coxswains, the World Championship in Argentina marks the start of the three-part national elimination in the battle for just one Olympic ticket.

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Ladies first: The Ilca 6 World Championship in Argentina is followed by the Ilca 7 Men's World Championship in Adelaide at the end of January

Julia Büsselberg's performance at the 2023 World Championships in The Hague had already secured her place on the international starting grid for the Ilca 6 Olympic regatta in Marseille this summer. It can be filled by anyone who comes out on top in the three-part elimination process at the current World Championships, the European Championships in Greece and the Trofeo Princesa Sofía and also fulfils the nomination criteria of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB).

Gesa Papenthin from Potsdamer Yacht-Club was the second-best German on day one of the World Championships in Argentina, opening the Olympic opening summit in South America in 21st place. After the World Championship of the Olympic Ilca 6 women's helm, Germany's best will be challenged at the World Championship of the Ilca 7 men: Philipp Buhl, Nik Aron Willim and other strong athletes from the German Sailing Team will start the exciting Olympic season.

Ilca 7 coxswains continue already started Olympic elimination in Australia

The German Ilca 7 aces will be competing for medals, top placings and important points for the individual national elimination in the battle for an Olympic starting place in the Australian waters off Adelaide from 26 to 31 January.

That was hard work - first impressions of the start of the Ilca 6 World Championship in the Argentinean hunting ground of Mar del Plata:

Tatjana Pokorny

Tatjana Pokorny

Sports reporter

Tatjana “tati” Pokorny is the author of nine books. As a reporter for Europe's leading sailing magazine YACHT, she also works as a correspondent for the German Press Agency (DPA), the Hamburger Abendblatt and other national and international media. In summer 2024, Tatjana will be reporting from Marseille on her ninth consecutive Olympic Games. Other core topics have been the America's Cup since 1992, the Ocean Race since 1993, the Vendée Globe and other national and international regattas and their protagonists. Favorite discipline: Portraits of and interviews with sailing personalities. When she started out in sports journalism, she was still intensively involved with basketball and other sports, but sailing quickly became her main focus. The reason? The declared optimist says: “There is no other sport like it, no other sport with such interesting and intelligent personalities, no other sport so diverse, no other sport so full of energy, strength and ideas. Sailing is like a constantly refreshing declaration of love for life."

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