Olympic sailing: World Championship battles for Olympic tickets: preliminary decision or equaliser?

For weeks, Germany's best sailors in the 49er, 49erFX, Nacra 17 and Laser Olympic disciplines have been preparing for their 2020 World Championships in Australia, which will take place almost simultaneously and on the same bay. Their stage, 165 days before the first Olympic starting signal in Enoshima, is Phillip Bay on the south coast of Australia - a sheltered dream spot, not only for Olympic sailors, with mostly flat water and often fair winds.

Just two months ago, the world's best crews in the 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 Olympic disciplines met for the World Championships in New Zealand. Now it's all about medals and big Olympic dreams in Australia

If you take a bird's eye view of the bay, you will see the port metropolis of Melbourne, its suburb Sandringham and the yacht club of the same name on the right-hand side, which will host the 2020 world championships for laser sailors starting on 11 February.

On the left side of the bay is the city of Geelong with a population of 160,000, where hundreds of skiff and mixed catamaran sailors are preparing for their world championship races. Their series begins on 10 February.

The mixed crews on the foiling catamarans make up the smallest field with 37 teams from 16 nations. 45 women's duos from 23 countries will be competing for world championship medals in the 49er's sister event, the FX. In the 49er itself, 80 men's teams from 27 countries will be competing. The total number of boats in these three spectacular World Championship classes will be reached almost single-handedly by the Laser sailors in Melbourne with 130 dinghies from 45 nations, making them by far the largest Olympic sailing discipline.

Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel put up a great fight at the 2019 World Championships on their home turf. Can the Berliners once again shake the throne of the New Zealand high-flyers at the 2020 World Championships?

In all four World Championship series, the German starters want to and can get involved in the battle for the medals. It is precisely these four of the ten Olympic disciplines that have been the most successful for Germany in recent years.

Laser ace Philipp Buhl can make everything clear

In the Laser, Philipp Buhl wants to make Phillip Bay his own at the start of the Olympic year, even if it is spelt a little differently. The three-time World Championship medallist, who competes for the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein and his home club Segelclub Alpsee-Immenstadt, has been preparing on site with his young and up-and-coming team-mate Nik Aaron Willim (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein) and national coach Alex Schlonski and feels fit.

Buhl told YACHT online on Friday: "The wind forecast looks very good. We're still training at the moment, adjusting to the new boats. This time the sail will even be hoisted here at the World Championship. We're looking forward to getting started. Now it's time to train again, then clean the boats, measure them and recharge our batteries."

In contrast to the crews of the German Sailing Team on the other side of the bay, Buhl does not yet have his ticket for his second Olympic Games in his pocket, but has already secured his place on the national starting list in 2018 with bronze at the World Championships in Aarhus and has very good Olympic prospects: The Allgäuer leads the national elimination with 19 points. Even with an average performance, he should be able to make everything clear in this third and final national elimination series for the laser sailors.

Like everyone else, Buhl still has to clear the third hurdle called the "DOSB Olympic standard" and be placed in the top ten nations after adding the results of the three specified qualifying regattas. Anyone who knows Buhl knows that he wants more. Above all, he wants to regain the consistency with which he sailed to success in 2018. He lacked this at times last year, even though the 30-year-old's bronze in the strong field at the 2019 European Championships in Porto left no doubt that he is always a force to be reckoned with in the battle for precious metal.

Kohlhoff/Stuhlemmer in the Nacra 17 without competition from their own country

On the left side of the bay, the national elimination for Paul Kohlhoff and Alica Stuhlemmer in the Nacra 17 only begins at this World Championship. In the meantime, however, the team from Kiel are unrivalled in their own country, because after Johannes Polgar handed over the tiller to Jan Hauke Erichsen from Flensburg due to a knee injury, the successor crew is also out of the race: Jan Hauke Erichsen and Carolina Werner will not be competing at the 2020 World Championships after finishing 34th at the 2019 World Championships.

Without national opponents and the pressure of having to secure a place on the national starting grid - which they managed to do at the 2019 World Championships - Kohlhoff and Stuhlemmer want to and can achieve more than twelfth place at the 2019 World Championships before Geelong. Paul Kohlhoff reported on Friday: "We had a good preparation and are quite happy with our progress. The sailing area is once again rather special. The wind is always offshore. Overall, we want to be better than in New Zealand and play in the absolute top group."

Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel want to do their own thing in the 49er

More national competition and exciting constellations for their second of three elimination regattas for just one Olympic ticket each prevail in the 49er and 49erFX skiff disciplines. In the men's event, the reigning Berlin vice world champions Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein) are leading the elimination with a whopping 30 points, which earned them the World Championship silver medal in Auckland - but this is by no means a reason for the veterans to overestimate themselves prematurely.

Erik Heil says: "We are hoping for solid results and are focussing on ourselves. The conditions here are very twisty. That usually plays into our hands, but it can also be nerve-wracking. We want to sail to our best result without taking other German results into account. Anything else would be too early.

And there are (with a view to the national competition in the battle for an Olympic ticket, ed.) also too many opponents. Tim and Fabi can really knock one out of the park. Megge and Spranger are racing really well here. And Justus and Max have been really solid over the last few days. One of them could also have a cool regatta. So our plans don't include a German infight for the time being. And, by the way, racing in connection with an objective outside of the regatta is also prohibited again."

Behind Heil/Plößel, their friends, sparring partners and rivals Justus Schmidt/Max Boehme from Kieler Yacht-Club are in second place in the Olympic elimination ranking after round one with nine points. Jakob Meggendorfer/Andreas Spranger (Bayerischer Yacht-Club) scored four points at the start of the elimination in New Zealand, while the 2018 World Championship bronze medallists from Aarhus, Tim Fischer/Fabian Graf (NRV/Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee), initially came away empty-handed after their unsuccessful 2019 World Championship. The scenario raises many questions ahead of the start of the World Championships on 10 February: Can the Rio bronze medallists Heil/Plößel dominate once again and shake the throne of New Zealand's world champions Peter Burling/Blair Tuke as furiously as they did in Auckland? Or can another top German 49er team shine? Will Tim Fischer and Fabian Graf, who are still without points but fast, manage the comeback that Vicky Jurczok and Anika Lorenz are also aiming for in the 49erFX?

49er FX: Jurczok/Lorenz in "beast mode", changeover for Lutz/Beucke with Lotta Wiemers

Like Fischer/Graf, the Berliners from the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club were unable to score points at the first elimination regatta of the 2019 World Championships. "We are under enormous pressure," admitted helmswoman Vicky Jurczok openly before the start of the World Championship on Monday, "but we are trying to get our skills back on the water. We can sail well and we can finish in the top three. We have to manage to switch to 'beast mode'."

Their rivals Tina Lutz and Susann Beucke, on the other hand, had impressed with fifth place in elimination round one at the World Championships in Auckland, scoring 16 points in the process and thus building up a comfortable points cushion in their third Olympic attempt. Now, however, Tina Lutz has to start the second elimination regatta with a substitute headsailor because Sanni Beucke broke her right fibula during training in Buenos Aires on New Year's Eve and, despite making good progress, is not yet fit to sail again but will support the team in Geelong.

Lotta Wiemers from Kiel, still known to many sailors by her maiden name Görge, has taken on the difficult task of standing in for Sanni. Tina Lutz says: "We're very lucky that Lotta dropped everything at home to stand in for Sanni. We've been training together for a fortnight and have got on really well. Lotta is doing a great job and has got back into sailing very quickly."

Despite many years of competitive sport, this is not a matter of course, as Lutz explains: "It's hard to believe that Lotta hasn't been on a 49er for more than two years. She struggles with her hands and her sailing-specific fitness, but she bites through and pushes herself beyond her limits every day."

The Bavarian helmswoman from the Chiemsee Yacht Club is optimistic about their joint World Championship outing: "I'm expecting an exciting regatta with Lotta. For me, it's a victory that we can sail here. Just a few weeks ago, I thought I wouldn't be able to take part in the World Championships." Tina Lutz also dares to make a cautious weather forecast for the opening Monday in Australia: "As we don't have much wind in training at the moment, I expect it to start blowing just in time for the start of the world championship."