This is not how champions Luise Wanser, Philipp Autenrieth and Philipp Buhl had imagined the elimination final for the Olympic test regatta from 9 to 16 July in Marseille. While the reigning 470 mixed world champions barely found their form in 19th place at the French Mediterranean classic, even a strong sixth place in the largest field of 155 boats was not enough for the 2020 Laser world champion to secure his ticket for the pre-Olympics in Marseille. His younger team and club mate Nik Willim from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein did even better.
Nik Willim: "It feels crazy and a little unreal"
"It feels good, but also crazy and a bit surreal," said Ilca-7 helmsman Nik Aaron Willim, who sailed to fifth place at the Semaine Olympique Française, finishing the series one place and one point ahead of Philipp Buhl. After finishing in the same position at the European Championships, where Buhl was eighth, Willim's performance enabled him to beat the maestro and qualify for the Pre-Olympics in Marseille from 9 to 16 July. The 26-year-old Ilca-7 helmsman from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein, who had hardly slept the night before the final, said in Hyères: "I'm so relieved! It's amazing after all the years of hard work, the setbacks, the frustration and the new motivation."
Nik Willim has been sailing in the Ilca 7 since 2014. Philipp Buhl has always supported the younger competitor and works with him in an international training group that also includes France's reigning world champion Jean-Baptiste Bernaz and Olympic bronze medallist Hermann Tomasgaard. In the battle with the champion for just one starting place per nation and discipline at the Pre-Olympics, Willim came out on top with three advantages: "I had good boat speed, trained very intensively physically and was also in a good mental state."
I am sad and disappointed." (Philipp Buhl)
Willim is honest: at the start of the season, he thought he had a chance of winning the qualification, but he thought Philipp Buhl had a better chance. In this respect, Nik Willim also surprised himself. His conclusion: "Philipp is still the most successful Olympic sailor in the German Sailing Team over the years. But the fact that I was able to beat 'Mighty Buhl' twice shows that the European Championship was no lucky punch."
Philipp Buhl is very upset about his defeat: "I'm sad and disappointed. I'm devastated that I wasn't able to prevail here. The experience of the Olympic test regatta would have been very important for me. In an Olympic campaign shortened to three years, a real test with an Olympic-sized fleet in the Olympic area is very important." The 33-year-old will now have to do without this opportunity.
"The Olympic medal remains the goal"
However, Buhl's fighting spirit is not dampened by the defeat. The national elimination series for qualification for the Olympic Games itself is organised differently to the often light-winded and only two-part series for the Olympic test regatta this year. The 2023 World Championships in The Hague and 2024 World Championships in Australia as well as the Spanish classic Trofeo Princesa Sofía 2024 count in the battle for the Olympic ticket. Buhl said: "The fact that I can't sail in the Olympic test regatta doesn't mean that I can't still successfully compete in the Olympic Games. The Olympic medal remains the goal."
The German Sailing Team's strong 470 mixed group is also thinking along these lines. Their elimination final was eagerly awaited due to the high performance density among the world's top sailors. While Luise Wanser and Philipp Autenrieth recently set the pace with their 2022 World Championship title and second place at the season opener in Palma, the Hamburg helmswoman and her Bavarian coxswain were unable to build on their successes at the elimination final for the Pre-Olympics in Hyères of all places. In 19th place, the Hamburg helmswoman from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein and her coxswain from the Bayerischer Yacht-Club fell far short of their own expectations. As a result, they missed out on the hoped-for qualification for the Olympic test regatta.
We realised the task well." (Malte Winkel)
Instead, this was secured by the sailing couple Malte and Anastasiya Winkel with convincing all-round skills and nerves of steel. The helmsman from the Schweriner Yacht-Club and his foresailor from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein put an impressive exclamation mark at the end of their confident series by winning the medal race. At seven knots, the conditions in the final were only partly trapezoidal. "We knew that we had to control two teams and we did the job well," reports Malte Winkel.
The fact that Simon Diesch and Anna Markfort followed an individual recall in the final and returned to the start line to clear up a possible early start played into the Winkels' hands. From then on, they "only" had to concentrate on their Portuguese opponents in order to move up to third place on the podium. This was achieved convincingly under the pressure of elimination with third place at the Semaine Olympique Française.
"We respect each other very much"
After the success, Malte Winkel also bowed to the joint training group and the training partners who were beaten this time: "We are all so close together at the top level. We all believe that the best on the water deserve to win. We respect each other very much. We congratulated Luise and Philipp on their silver in Palma. They weren't where they belonged this week. Simon and Anna congratulated us very fairly here after the final. We all congratulate each other on our successes."
Simon Diesch and Anna Markfort (Württembergischer Yacht-Club/Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee) ended the week with mixed feelings after they had put in a strong series up to the final and kept their chance of a ticket to the Pre-Olympics. Anna Markfort said: "It was a very challenging week. Our disappointment after the final is not exactly small. On the other hand, we can be proud of our result in difficult conditions and build on it."
Ilca-6 helmswoman Julia Büsselberg (Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee) and Formula kiter Jannis Maus (Cuxkiters) also scored points for their qualification account with tenth places in Hyères. Kiter Flo Gruber and his team-mate Leonie Meyer (both Norddeutscher Regatta Verein) also managed this with 13th places each.
Bronze team Kohlhoff/Stuhlemmer on course despite setback
In the 49er FX, the young Hamburg sailors Marla Bergmann/Hanna Wille (Mühlenberger Segel-Club) sailed to 15th place off Hyères after their strong sixth place in Palma and thus recommended themselves for nomination for the Olympic test event. This also applies to the Olympic bronze medallists Paul Kohlhoff and Alica Stuhlemmer (Kieler Yacht-Club). Although the foiling experts from Kiel surprisingly got stuck in the silver fleet in 25th place in France after Kohlhoff fell ill the previous week, they had already proven that they were among the world's best at the start of the season with sixth place at the Trofeo Princesa Sofía in Palma.
The German Sailing Team will announce its final line-up for the Pre-Olympics and the World Championships in all ten Olympic disciplines in The Hague in the coming weeks. For the newly Olympic iQFoil windsurfers with world champion Sebastian Kördel, part two of their elimination in Greece at the beginning of May is still to come.
France well equipped for the Olympic Games on home turf
The strongest nation at the 54th Semaine Olympique Française in their home waters was the host nation, the French, with three gold medals. At its 55th edition in the 2024 Olympic year, the French Sailing Week will be the event at which the last last-minute starting places for the Olympic regatta will be allocated.
