Sailing World Championship: Tears, breakage, shock - a bad day for Team Germany
Tatjana Pokorny
· 17.08.2023
Just when the German Sailing Team in The Hague thought things couldn't get any worse on Thursday, the next piece of bad news arrived. The seventh day of the World Championships was a pitch-black one for the national sailing team on the moody and current-intensive North Sea. Even the highlights of Paul Kohlhoff and Alica Stuhlemmer's conciliatory third place in the Nacra 17 final and Sebastian Kördel's performance as overall runner-up in the newly Olympic iQFoil windsurfers could not prevent this.
Not a good day for the German Sailing Team
A few tears of disappointment flowed in the 470 mixed camp over the dashed medal hopes. Ilca 7 helmsman Philipp Buhl struggled with himself like rarely before after two massively botched races. Kiter Leonie Meyer plummeted down the ranks from fourth to 14th place after breaking and having a lot of bad luck in the fight to get back into the day's races as quickly as possible. High double-digit placings weighed on the German World Championship accounts on this day, as if the heavens had conspired against the national team.
Germany's most successful laser sailor of the past ten years was already "shocked" by his performance in the morning: Philipp Buhl crashed to twelfth place at the Allianz Sailing World Championships, finishing 50th and 40th.
Two days earlier, he had earned the red bip of third in the fleet. "90 points in two races in these conditions? That's more points than in three Melbourne World Championships put together. I completely lost myself today," said Buhl, who was the first German Laser sailor to be crowned world champion in 2020 before Melbourne. The helmsman from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein has two races left to regain his place in the final of the top ten. His comeback qualities are well known.
Our third place in the final was conciliatory" (Paul Kohlhoff)
The highlights of the day followed in the afternoon with the medal races for the top ten Nacra 17 crews and the 470 mixed teams. Paul Kohlhoff/Alica Stuhlemmer started the day in ninth place with no chance of a medal after a split World Championship. The Olympic bronze medallists had opened the World Championships brilliantly, winning and placing well for two days and performing with a high level of confidence. Then the break: in the main round, a series of sobering double-digit results followed. "That was the surprise. Not the preliminary round," said Paul Kohlhoff.
The duo from Kiel suddenly found that they were no longer able to navigate the gold fleet as unerringly as before. It is difficult for the pair to pinpoint the reasons for this. At the end of the World Championships, they finished in seventh place thanks to a spirited final race. Paul Kohlhoff said: "Our third place in the final was a pleasing result. We confirmed our place in the nations and our squad status, which was good. But we wanted more."
The 470 medal hopes were dashed in the final
The successful German 470 mixed crews wanted to do the same. Starting the final in third and fifth place with a good chance of silver or bronze, the German duos Malte and Anastasiya Winkel (Schweriner Yacht-Club/Norddeutscher Regatta Verein) and Simon Diesch/Anna Markfort (Württembergischer Yacht-Club/Joersfelder Segel-Club) finished seventh and eighth. This meant fifth and eighth place in the final World Championship classification. The defending champions Luise Wanser and Philipp Autenrieth (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein/Bayerischer Yacht-Club) finished ninth. None of the two possible medals were won.
"We are very disappointed, but we were able to secure our place at the Olympic Games," said Anastasiya Winkel. She added combatively: "The Japanese deserved to win the Nations Cup here. Nevertheless, I believe that we are the better group on course for the Olympic Games."
It was incredibly difficult to find the pressure out there. You only saw it when it was there" (Anna Markfort)
Winkel/Winkel most recently relegated the Japanese world champions to third place last month at the test regatta in the Olympic area off Marseille. They continue to believe in the strength of the German world-class training group, even if it was not enough to win medals in the difficult North Sea area. Anna Markfort, as close to tears as Anastasiya Winkel after an outstanding first and difficult second half of the World Championships, said after the final: "It was just incredibly difficult today to find the pressure out there. You only saw it when it was there. That's complaining at a high level, but it still hurt today."
Teammate and kiter Leonie Meyer (NRV), who had had an outstanding series up until Black Thursday and was in fourth place, was hit particularly hard. She dropped back from fourth to 14th place because her kite line broke and a chain of wrongly executed external assistance measures also cost her the following race. Meyer had replaced her trimmer system with a new one three days before the World Championships and was still running it in. "A sharp ridge inside the pulley cut the whole rope. I couldn't see or control it," said Leonie Meyer, explaining the cause of her tough day.
Chain reaction with consequences
The line broke in the very first race of the day. "I lost the entire kite," says Meyer. She first had to gather it up and pack it away. The interim coach responsible for Meyer did not see her properly. It was then announced that a German coach should go to the windward mark. This was done by the men's coach Jan Hauke Erichsen, who also provided Meyer with strong support during the week.
However, it wasn't Meyer at the windward mark, but a French woman. Meyer had to join the "rescue team" on the boat in order to solve their problems quickly. She hurriedly gave instructions: "Take care with the engine, switch it off." Yes, she was told, it was off. "And what happened? The propeller was on and ate up all my lines. I had to get all the ropes out again first. It all took ages," Leonie Meyer remembers this part of the unfortunate chain reaction. The World Cup organiser finally brought her to the beach.
Tomorrow is a new day. I hope that I can get back into the top ten" (Leonie Meyer)
"I had to swim in and run up the beach. The caddies there are just great. They had already prepared everything, had already spoken to the surveyors about letting me swap kites." Meyer manages the act at breakneck speed. "Then I ran back down and gave it my all to make the start of the next race. I was 20 seconds off the pace."
With a "DNF" and a "DNC", weighed down by replacement equipment and on the verge of exhaustion, Leonie Meyer was unable to match the good results of the previous days in two more races that day. However, she has not lost her courage and her desire to attack after this confounded day: "Tomorrow is a new day. Maybe with a little less wind. I will attack again and hope that I can get back into the top ten."
Windsurfing giant Sebastian Kördel stays on course
The national sailing team's main hope in the North Sea remains defending champion Sebastian Kördel (NRV), who is second in the newly Olympic iQFoil after 14 of 20 races and has so far not been put off his stride even by dampers in the series.
