2.4 mR World Championship: World champion for the 13th time - Heiko Kröger unstoppable
Tatjana Pokorny
· 05.08.2023
At the award ceremony, Heiko Kröger had to think and count for a moment himself. Then came the impressive answer: the helmsman from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein had won an open world championship in the 2.4 mR class for the second time since 2001. Including the eleven titles he won at Paralympic World Championships in the challenging keelboat class, he now has 13 World Championship gold medals in the 2.4mR.
Exciting duels with Megan Pascoe
The 57-year-old helmsman shone in the Finnish world championship area with six race wins in ten races. Heiko Kröger sailed so dominantly that he no longer had to compete in the final race. In his golden World Championship race, he had to contend primarily with the strong Brit Megan Pascoe. However, she had opened the World Championships on the beautiful Näsijärvi near Tampere with an early start. In two races she was able to leave Heiko Kröger behind - which was enough for silver in the final ranking ahead of the Finn Jan Forsbom.
"But it wasn't easy," Heiko Kröger explains to those who might think so in view of his many successes. The 2000 Paralympic champion and 2012 silver medallist continued: "They were super exciting races. And finally long races of an hour or more, which is rather untypical these days. It was all about speed and positioning at the front. Megan and I battled it out America's Cup-style, one turn after another."
The World Cup was very well organised, the programme for the participants was super hospitable" (Heiko Kröger)
At the end of the World Championship series, Heiko Kröger recalled that he had contested his first World Championship in his first 2.4 mR season in this area 25 years ago. "There were 116 participants and I came sixth. That was in 1998 and it was already a great sailing area with good sailing conditions back then." Kröger and the other participants had high praise for the organisers from the Näsijärvi Sailing Club: "The World Championship was very well organised and the programme for the participants was super hospitable," said Kröger.
Kalle Dehler sailed to seventh place at the 2.4 mR World Championships for the Segelsport Flensburg-Harrislee club. The experienced sea sailor thus won the "Grand Master" classification for sailors older than 65 years - a strong performance by the 2.4 mR helmsman, who started sailing in the one-person keelboat dinghy in 2018. His bow to the new champion: "Heiko has become world champion with aplomb. He remains the benchmark in this class, which is so much fun to sail," said Kalle Dehler.
After the World Cup is before the World Cup
The standard was high at this world championship, says the new world champion Heiko Kröger, "they all came from as far away as Australia, Puerto Rico and the USA." He names his key to success without thinking: "Speed was king. My car ran like hell." His "car" is "V8", Kröger's abbreviation for "Vessel 8" - the maestro's eighth 2.4mR, which has now carried him to world championship gold.
For Heiko Kröger, after the World Championships was already before the next World Championships on Saturday. On Sunday, he travelled from Helsinki to Travemünde and briefly back home. From there, it's straight on to The Hague, where the World Championships for all Olympic and former Paralympic and - the hope of the World Sailing Federation and its athletes - future Paralympic classes will begin on 11 August. In Holland, the best athletes from the German Sailing Team will be competing for World Championship medals and national starting places for the 2024 Olympics. For some national sailors, the World Championships also mark the start of the national qualifiers.
The world champion speaks! An interview with Heiko Kröger before the end of the World Cup:
At this point, you will find external content that complements the article. You can display and hide it with a click.
