The Kiel Tornado sailors Johannes Polgar and Florian Spalteholz and the 49er team Marcus Baur/Hannes Baumann have ensured victories for German sailors at the 125th Kieler Woche. In the Star boat, a German victory in the medal race was prevented.
Polgar/ Spalteholz and also Baur/ Baumann will pack their boats on Thursday for transport to China for the Olympic test regattas off Quingdao and travel on to Cascais in Portugal for the World Championships of the Olympic boat classes starting on 28 June.
"It was a different line-up than usual at Kiel Week because there are already a few people in Cascais, but I'm delighted with the win. I won Kiel Week once in the 420, but that was a while ago," says Marcus Baur, whose 24-year-old co-skipper Hannes Baumann has only been sailing with the two-time Olympian in the 49er for a few months. Baur/Baumann are taking two boats to Cascais and sending the number three to Quindao. Favourite boat? "It's like a violin," says Baur, "each one sounds a little different."
Johannes Polgar and Florian Spalteholz had two pursuers to keep an eye on in the Tornado - both Roland Gäbler/Gunnar Struckmann and the Austrians "Thomis" Zajak and Czeijka, who are both called Thomas. So strategy and tactics were required right from the start. They positioned themselves right in between and were spot on.
For the Sports Director of the German Sailing Association, Hans Sendes (Hamburg), only the result of his protégés counts in the overall assessment: "How the Kiel Week is or was cast plays a subordinate role. The victory here provides motivation for the World Championships off Cascais, that's what counts."
In addition to the German overall victories, third place in the Laser class by Alexander Schlonski from Rostock and second, third and fourth places on the new Olympic surfboard RS X by Moana Delle (Soest), Regina Stadler (Bernau) and Laura Arnold (Berlin) also delighted the sports director.
After a botched start to the final race, Marc Pickel (Kiel) and Ingo Borkowski (Babelsberg) in the Star boat literally sailed past the Kieler Woche victory. The World Championship candidates, who took the lead in the classification of the 30 participating boats with three race wins and a third place in the first few days, messed up the start in the so-called medal race and had to be satisfied with fourth place in the end. The duo is already qualified for the pre-Olympic regattas in China and used the Kiel Week to optimise their self-built new boat. The Austrians Hans Spitzauer/ Christian Nehammer won the Starboat competition ahead of the US team Rick Merriman/ Rick Peters. Hamburg's Alexander Hagen and Frithjof Kleen overtook Pickel/Borkowski to take third place.
Starting today, the 16 international classes are on the Kiel Week programme, which will determine their winners until Sunday.
Tough competition for the X-35
In perfect conditions with 10 to 16 knots of wind, the 35-boat field of the X-35 World Championship completed the first two regattas on the Stollergrund. The British "Cool Running" took the lead ahead of last year's best Nick Bol (NL) at the helm of his "Quantum Racing". "The competition has grown since last year. The boats from Great Britain, Estonia and Germany in particular seem to be very strong," explained the one-class specialist Bol, who already has many successes in other classes, such as the Farr 40 and the Mumm 30.
Wolfgang Schäfer, Chairman of the DSV Sailing Committee, was also impressed by the high quality of the crews at the X-35 World Championship. "It was really close, especially in the first third of the field. They were first-class races today," explained Schäfer, who watched the action from the dinghy. Schäfer, who is usually at the helm of his Farr 40 himself and therefore knows sailing in tight fields well, confirmed that the participants showed very disciplined behaviour on the water despite some protests. A further eight races are scheduled until Saturday before the X-35 World Champion can be crowned.
