Laser European Championship: Buhl opens Laser European Championship as front runner

Germany's best laser sailor Philipp Buhl got the European Championships in the Olympic dinghy class off to a flying start with 1st and 4th place. Off Porto in Portugal, the world number four from Sonthofen leads the fleet of 162 sailors from 55 nations after the first day. For him, this performance in light winds of between five and seven knots is tantamount to a liberating blow after a dry spell of several months.

Here you can hear and see how good Philipp Buhl's successful start to the European Championships on Monday was after a long dry spell

"I haven't won a race for a long time. That feels good. Especially because anything can happen in light winds," said Buhl after his successful European Championship opener. The 2018 World Championship bronze medallist had to put up with some disappointing regatta results at the start of the season and prescribed himself a forced break of several weeks with intensive fitness training. He wants to take a step back so that he can then take two steps forwards - that is his goal for these continental title fights. His young training partner Nik-Aaron Willim also got off to a successful start in the competition and, after finishing 8th and 15th, is in 26th place in the world championship field, which is missing only one great champion: exceptional sailor Robert Scheidt contested the SSL Breeze Grand Slam and the Starboat European Championships on Lake Garda last week and, after an impressive victory, said that he would not be competing in the Laser European Championships because they are too close to the major event, which only ended on Sunday. The five-time Olympic medallist and double Olympic champion Scheidt announced his Olympic comeback in the Laser at the beginning of the year at the age of 46 after six Olympic appearances, but wants to save his strength and build enough recovery phases into his season planning.

At the weekend, the World Sailing Federation confirmed the Olympic status of the Laser class until at least 2024; efforts to replace the class, which has been Olympic since 1996, with a new boat were rejected by a large majority of the member nations in the federation. "For me, the Laser should always remain Olympic," said Germany's most successful sailor Jochen Schümann with regard to the world's most popular Olympic boat class. "The Laser is the cheapest bathtub in Olympic sailing, but produces the most high-class competition." The European Championship ends on 25 May.