Sailing Olympic: Rising star Willim takes first day win at Miami World Cup

He is 22 years old and is impressing at the start of the season: Nik Aaron Willim from Kiel gave himself and the German Sailing Team their first one-day win of this World Cup season on Wednesday off Miami. It was annoying that the helmsman from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein had an early start immediately afterwards, but this does not detract from the top result. After four races, Willim is in 13th place in the very well-staffed field of 101 Laser sailors from an impressive 48 countries at the first World Cup regatta of the season. There are hardly any Olympic sports disciplines that can boast such a diversity of nations at World Cups.

Team-mate and World Championship bronze medallist Philipp Buhl overtook Willim after his botched start. The 29-year-old was able to make up for his early start the day before. With twelfth and third place, the helmsman from the Alpsee-Immenstadt sailing club made a huge leap from 52nd to tenth place in the intermediate classification. The Buhl/Willim team trains under the direction of national coach Alex Schlonski and seems to be coping well with Buhl's less favoured shifty and once again very light winds. Both German Laser sailors were able to qualify for the gold fleet with confidence at the end of the qualification. "It was a good day," said Buhl, "it was especially fun with Nik. He had a win on the day and a third place, which was unfortunately an early start, but he performed really well. It's fun not to be up there alone!"

After a late arrival in Miami, the Kiel Nacra 17 sailors Paul Kohlhoff and Alica Stuhlemmer also got off to a better start to the regatta, finishing sixth and fourth on Wednesday after a weak start and moving up to 15th place. In twelfth place in the field of 27 mixed catamaran crews after five races were Johannes Polgar and Carolina Werner, who had opened this series with a third place. Their small fleet is strong at the top: Santi Lange and Cecilia Carranza Saroli, the Olympic champions in third place, are at the start. Brazilians Samuel Albrecht and Gabriela Nicolino de Sa have taken the lead ahead of Australian Rio silver medallists Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin. In fourth place is the 49er Olympic champion Iker Martinez with Olga Maslivets.

In the 49erFX field, the defending champions Vicky Jurczok and Anika Lorenz from the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club were able to hold their own in the top five. With eleventh and fourth place, the Berliners fell back only slightly, but continue to sail at eye level with the leading crews. Only the New Zealanders Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech were able to pull away slightly at the top with an eleven-point lead over the second-placed Britons Sophie Weguelin and Sophie Ainsworth. Olympic champions Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze, in 13th place, still have some ground to make up if they want to catch up with the top teams.

In the 49er, the still best German crew Tim Fischer/Fabian Graf lost ground in the only men's skiff race of the day, dropping back to sixth place. Directly behind them, Nils Carstensen and Jan Frigge from Flensburg were seventh after a total of four races. Berliners Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel improved to eleventh place, while their team-mates Justus Schmidt and Max Boehme are twelfth. In the Finn Dinghy, Phillip Kasüske is in ninth place after a total of just two races. No races could be held in the 470 women's and men's disciplines on Wednesday in the light breeze. The series will continue on Thursday from 10 a.m. local time (3 p.m. German time), as the organisers want to make up for the cancelled races.

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