Sailing World Championship: Cancellations with consequences - Kördel in the semi-finals, Meyer unlucky

For the first time at the World Championships for all ten Olympic disciplines in The Hague, a competition had to be concluded without a medal race on Friday. The women's skiff sailors chose their champions according to the main round rankings because there was no wind for the final. As with the women, the decisions in the men's 49er skiff were also made without German participation, but with medal races. In both disciplines, the new world champions Vilma Bobeck/Rebecca Netzler (Sweden) and Bart Lambrieux/Floris Van de Werken (Netherlands) had already secured their gold before the final.

Defending champion Sebastian Kördel in the semi-finals

After a windless Friday, things will be really exciting again from a German perspective at the weekend: windsurfing world champion Sebastian Kördel (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein) will defend his title on Saturday. The cancellation of the last races for the new Olympic iQFoilers meant that the Radolfzell native made it straight through to the semi-finals after a strong series with four daily wins in 14 races.

The 2022 world champion is looking forward to the decision in better winds: "We're expecting 15 to 20 knots, which is fine." The quarter-finals, semi-finals and final of the Olympic windsurfing competition will be held in a sudden death format. The "gladiator format" of advancing to the next round in just one heat usually suits Kördel.

After winning the World Cup last year, I no longer feel this extreme overpressure" (Sebastian Kördel)

If he could choose, Kördel, like the majority of the other athletes, would prefer to distribute precious metal without a medal race, but according to the overall result over a long series, but the German surfing giant can usually handle the pressure well. The 32-year-old said in The Hague's World Championship harbour of Scheveningen: "I would say nerves are one of my strengths."

Sebastian Kördel, who lives in Kiel, also benefits from the fact that he "no longer feels this blatant overpressure" to win gold since his World Championship triumph last year. Kördel knows his potential opponents in the battle for the medals well and for a long time. Kördel said of the Italian main round winner Nicolo Renna, who had already qualified for the final: "He was too strong on our last day of racing, while I missed twice." Kördel said of Dutchman Luuc Van Opzeeland: "He was the fastest for years, but never won anything." The final rounds will show whether one of these three or another windsurfer from the top ten, who have to go through the quarter-finals, will make the World Championship race on Saturday.

Tough draw for top kiter Leonie Meyer

For kiteboarder Leonie Meyer (Kiel), on the other hand, the cancellation of her last World Championship race on Friday was more than unfortunate. After breaking and not self-inflicted follow-up problems the day before, which dropped her from fourth place to 14th, the mother and doctor was robbed of the chance to cancel one of her high break results with at least one race still to be held and still make it into the top ten final: "That's a bit mean, but the secured national starting place for the 2024 Olympics is a small consolation," said the 30-year-old, who was hit hard by the bad weather after top performances.

While all four new Olympic board disciplines (iQFoil men, iQFoil women, Formula Kite men, Formula Kite women) will be competing under the umbrella of sailing, Ilca 7 helmsman Philipp Buhl will be fighting to make up for his disastrous results from the previous day on Saturday. The 2020 world champion crashed from fourth to twelfth place on Thursday, finishing 49th and 40th, and was himself "shocked" by this.

Philipp Buhl wants to get back into the top ten

In the meantime, the experienced 33-year-old from Allgäu has collected himself and wants to compete on Saturday for a place in the medal race of the Ilca-7 fleet on Sunday. "This World Championship can no longer be a super World Championship for me. But I will do my best to limit the damage with a top ten result."

The medal finals for the kiters will start at 11am on Saturday, while the iQFoil windsurfing decisions will begin at 2pm. Click here for the live link for 19 August:

Click here for the results of the Sailing World Championships in The Hague.