Olympic sailing: "Our focus is now on the future"

After a challenging regatta week with predominantly light, difficult to read wind conditions and many favourites crashing, the German Sailing Team will be represented by six crews in four of the ten medal races on Saturday. Two DSV crews have even qualified for the final in each of the 49erFX and 470 women's disciplines. In addition, the Nacra 17 crew Paul Kohlhoff/Alica Stuhlemmer and - as the best - the Kiel 49er sailors Justus Schmidt and Max Boehme. In fifth place in the skiff classification, they were the only German crew to keep their medal chances alive. The duo from the Kieler Yacht-Club would have to make up nine points (five places) for bronze in the double scoring final and 15 points (eight places) for silver if they are to make it onto the podium. This is a difficult, but not completely impossible task.

The 50th anniversary edition of the Spanish classic in the bay of Palma de Mallorca put the more than 1200 Olympic sailors taking part to the test this year. The wind conditions rarely corresponded to the typical Palma conditions. On some courses, conditions were borderline with up to 90-degree turns. Justus Schmidt and Max Boehme coped best with the concentration task, who were able to return to their previous performances after five months of intensive training in Portugal, New Zealand, Miami, Portugal and Spain.

"We're still recovering from our almost two-year break," explained Justus Schmidt, "but our focus is now on the future. And of course our performance here is also good for our self-confidence." With their success in Spanish waters, the duo have also taken an important step in the battle for just one German starting place per discipline at this summer's Pre-Olympics in Enoshima, Japan. Schmidt/Boehme not only benefited from their own focussed performance. Their national friends and rivals Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel from the NRV Olympic Team missed out on the medal race in thirteenth place. World Championship bronze medallists Tim Fischer and Fabian Graf (NRV/VSaW) finished the series in 20th place in the large field of 108 participating high-performance dinghies after an initially strong performance.

DESPITE BAG, TRAPEZE TEAR AND CRASH IN THE FINAL

Paul Kohlhoff and Alica Stuhlemmer were remarkably successful in the series. The Nacra 17 crew from the Kiel Yacht Club only just made it into the medal final in tenth place after 15 races. However, according to their performance, it could have been a much better place had it not been for a large plastic bag on the rudder including sailing backwards, a torn harness strap and a no-fault crash with the Italian world champions Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti, which cost the duo full points three times. With two race wins and three third places, Kohlhoff/Stuhlemmer have impressively demonstrated this week that they can sail among the world's best. "We flipped the switch after Miami and feel fitter than ever. We are happy with the way we are sailing," said Paul Kohlhoff. His team also took a big step towards qualifying for the Pre-Olympics with their good performance in the Bay of Palma. All four sailors involved survived the crash in the 15th race on Friday. The German catamaran on an upwind course and the Italian catamaran on a downwind course had wedged into each other in order to accelerate away from each other again. However, this was not possible at first. The Germans - who were in a promising position in the top ten before the crash - finally cut themselves free (and broke a few things on their opponent's boat) because they knew that even a last place in this race could still be worth their ticket to the final. And so it came to pass.

The two German 49erFX crews Tina Lutz/Susann Beucke (Chiemsee Yacht-Club/Hannoverscher Yacht-Club) and Vicky Jurczok/Anika Lorenz (Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee) were doubly successful on Friday, qualifying in seventh and ninth place after 15 races for the medal final of the skiff sailors, in which the Brazilian Olympic champions Martine Soffiatti Grael and Kahena Kunze will start as front runners on Saturday. The German 470 sailors are also represented in the final with two teams: Miami winners Frederike Loewe and Anna Markfort (VSaW) made it through to the final in ninth place after ten races. The young Hamburg sisters Luise and Helena Wanser are already celebrating the biggest success of their career to date with tenth place and their first medal final in a senior field that is fit for the Olympics, and are looking to attack again on Saturday.

Laser helmsman Philipp Buhl, on the other hand, had to cope with a severe setback. After his unsuccessful start to the year in Miami, the world number three was unable to find his usual wave of success in Spain. With 33rd place, the 29-year-old top competitor was once again clearly beaten. The fact that Pavlos Kontides, the double world champion and world sailor of the year, was also unable to get past 25th place in the sometimes adverse conditions on the outdoor Laser course was no consolation for Buhl: "This really hurts here. And I still don't have an answer as to why. I will analyse the regatta properly with my coach Alex Schlonski and then draw the necessary conclusions for this pre-Olympic year." The Laser Radial helmswoman Svenja Weger (13th) and the Finn sailors Max Kohlhoff (21st) and Phillip Kasüske (28th) also missed out on their medal races after starting so strongly in the Trofeo Princesa Sofía.

UPDATE6 April, 10.30 a.m.: The organisers have corrected the results in several classes overnight. The German Nacra 17 team Kohlhoff/Stuhlemmer have been hit the hardest, as they are tied on points with the Spanish team Pacheco van Rinsoever/Trittel, who are now in tenth place and just miss out on the medal race in eleventh place. Because the Notice of Race regarding equal points for two teams is worded ambiguously, it was not - as usual - the higher number of better places that was decisive (Kohlhoff/Stuhlemmer have two daily wins, the Spaniards only one), but the better result in the last race, in which the Spaniards were 21st and Kohlhoff/Stuhlemmer only finished 24th after the crash through no fault of their own. "That's enough now," said Kohlhoff after the final elimination at the green table, complaining about the controversial decision, which benefited a Spanish team in Palma de Mallorca. The standings have also changed ahead of the 470 women's medal race. Frederike Loewe and Anna Markfort are eighth in the medal race, the Wanser sisters are ninth.