Two podium places for the German Sailing Team in France: Top helmswoman Wanser: "We were really fast"

Even without a win or podium finish, he was the secret winner off Hyères: ILCA 7 helmsman Nik Aaron Willim achieved the best result of his career with eighth place in the world-class field of 129 boats after a long dry spell and many injuries in recent years. His training partner, trailblazer and driving force Philipp Buhl, himself in outstanding form and only dropping back to fourth place in the final, had been predicting for months that his younger sparring partner was in top form. Now Willim has finally been able to realise the performances shown so often in training at a top-class regatta. The explosion follows the loss of his place in the squad last year after failing to make the World Championships.

"I've never enjoyed sailing more!"

The helmsman from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein was correspondingly delighted: "I knew that I had to change something after the World Championship, which I completely messed up. I had to leave my comfort zone. The season got off to a good start right from the start at the smaller regattas. The decisive factor here before Hyères was that I was able to activate myself one hundred per cent and fully call on my training performance. I finally realised: this is how it should feel! Two things are really good: I showed myself that I can do it. And in honest conditions. What's more, I've had a lot of injuries in recent years, but now I've pulled through. With staying power. I've never enjoyed sailing more! I can now go into the World Championships with more joy, power and composure and think that a lot can happen for Philipp and me in our current condition. Philipp is a great training partner who will certainly be sailing close to the title in Mexico."

After a magnificent two-thirds of the French week, the praised man himself suffered a few setbacks at the end. A complicated light wind final day, a slightly too hesitant start and eighth place in the very light wind final with winds ranging from five knots at the beginning to just three knots in the end meant that the 32-year-old from Allgäu fell off the podium. However, the 2020 Laser World Champion quickly got over his slight disappointment. "The end of this sunny week in Hyères was a little disappointing, but I'm still very happy with my overall performance. A lot of things went really well this week. Today was perhaps a good wake-up call. I obviously made a few too many mistakes over the last two days, but I was still able to put a few hooks in on the way to the next regatta. I'm taking a lot of good things and a lot of self-confidence with me for the World Championships in Mexico in a month's time." Buhl (Segelclub Alpsee-Immenstadt/NRV) was delighted with Willim's performance: "It's great to see that my team-mate Nik Aaron Willim can also show his training performance at a major regatta: He has competed in the first major medal race of his career!"

The two top results for the German Sailing Team were delivered by the 470 duo Luise Wanser/Philipp Autenrieth (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein/Bayerischer Yacht-Club) and iQFoiler Sebastian Kördel (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein). In the field of the new Olympic 470 mixed crews, Luise Wanser and her coxswain Philipp Autenrieth were once again the best helmswomen. Austrian Lara Vadlau and Lukas Mähr came close to snatching this position from her, but cost their team the podium place they had hoped for with an early start in the final. Luise Wanser, 24-year-old Olympic sixth-placed from Enoshima, said: "We were really fast and have a speed advantage as soon as gliding conditions prevail. Of course we still make mistakes. I'm still young and we're a new team. In the medal final we had to curl on the home straight. But overall, we are very happy with our performance - a good basis for the road ahead." Theres Dahnke and Matti Cipra (Plauer Wassersportverein) and Malte and Anastasiya Winkel (Schweriner Yacht-Club/NRV) completed the good German 470 mixed results with 13th and 15th place.

Without any races on the final day, which were cancelled for the iQFoilers in the very light winds off Hyères, Sebastian Kördel surfed to third place. Despite falling ill the previous week, the 31-year-old from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein was able to improve quickly during the French Olympic week and achieve a formidable podium finish. "This is a great result, which my coach Dom Tidey is also very happy about. It's our first podium finish together." DSV Sports Director Nadine Stegenwalner was more than satisfied: "After Palma, this was the second major European event with a world-class line-up and good to very good results from our crews. The consistency shows that the athletes and coaches have worked really well over the winter. The result is a strong motivation on our course towards the 2024 Olympic Games."

The fact that the national sailors were unable to shine in all classes, especially in the German skiff parade disciplines, was not due to a lack of performance. In the 49er, the top performers are still missing at the start of the season because they only start later due to study or work commitments. And the 29th place of Jakob Meggendorfer/Andreas Spranger (Bayerischer Yacht-Club) was due to an illness of the helmsman and the cancellation halfway through the regatta after an impressive start by the South Germans. There were also no current squad sailors at the start in the 49er FX due to other plans. Click here for all the overall results of the Semaine Olympique Française (please click!).