Where Philipp Buhl celebrated his first World Championship title in the Laser on 16 February, Marit Bouwmeester struck for the fourth time today: the Dutchwoman reclaimed her World Championship title in Phillip Bay off Melbourne, which she had to concede in the two previous years first to Belgian Emma Plasschaert (2018) and then to Danish rival Anne-Marie Rindom (2019). Bouwmeester is back in full swing at the right time and will now start the Olympic regatta in the Laser Radial four years after her golden triumph under Rio de Janeiro's sugar loaf again as the top favourite. She won Olympic silver in 2012. Marit Bouwmeester would love to follow up her 2016 Olympic victory with a second in Enoshima, Japan, from 26 July.
Known as a training-intensive and athletically outstanding individual competitor, Bouwmeester has recently changed her concept and, together with three other Dutch team-mates, has concentrated on preparing for the World Championships and the Olympics. The quartet's World Championship result shows the level at which the flying Dutchwomen are now operating together. Bouwmeester's "successor to the throne" Maxime Jonker was runner-up in Down Under. Daphne van der Vaart sailed to seventh place, her young team-mate Mirthe Akkerman to 10th place - adding up the successes resulted in four top ten placings for the hosts of the joint Sailing World Championships for all Olympic sailing disciplines in The Hague in 2022. "We've only just started training together," reported Bouwmeester, "the level of training is so high. They push me every day. The result here is really a team effort." Norway's Line Flem Høst secured bronze at the World Championships in Australia.
Bouwmeester cheerfully described the beast inside her at the end of the series when she answered the question as to why she was penalised with a yellow flag in a race: "I rocked the boat too hard. I thought I deserved a yellow flag and then I got it..." Bouwmeester is a master at pushing herself to success and pushing herself to her limits, sometimes even beyond them.
Germany's best Laser Radial helmswoman Svenja Weger finished the World Championships in 13th place. The 26-year-old sports soldier and psychology student from the Potsdam Yacht Club, who trains under the direction of Jonasz Stelmaszyk, was able to shine with two top-five finishes, but also had a few double-digit results that were too high in the most difficult World Championship conditions. Weger described the final day, on which she did not get the best of the spins, as "very difficult, very spinny and full of holes". However, she was cautiously optimistic at the start of the national Olympic qualifiers for the Laser Radial sailors: "On the whole, I'm satisfied with the regatta as a start to our Olympic qualification. Unfortunately, one too many strikes in qualifying cost me valuable points." In contrast to the Laser men, where Philipp Buhl has already confidently qualified for the Olympic regatta as world champion, the women have only just started their qualification at the World Championships in Australia.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
