Kieler Woche: Preliminary decisions for the Olympians - Mast breakage on the racecourse
YACHT-Redaktion
· 26.06.2024
Even before the final medal races in the five Olympic disciplines on Wednesday, preliminary decisions seem to have been made in three classes. The 49er FX crew Inga-Marie Hofmann/Jill Paland (Düsseldorf/Hamburg) have the best chance of winning a German title. Germany's Olympic medal hopeful Philipp Buhl will start the battle for the Kieler Woche podium in the Ilca 7 in fourth place, tied on points with his mate Hermann Tomasgaard from Norway (3rd). Her sparring partner Jean Baptiste Bernaz from France is the favourite. Poland's Agata Barwinska also has a solid lead in Ilca 6.
Big lead in the 49er-FX
Hofmann/Paland have built up a 17-point cushion in the 49er FX with a consistent series and can only theoretically surrender victory. "The gaps between second and fifth place are very tight, so we should come through well," the team speculates that the battles for second place will predominate behind them. Currently in silver and bronze are Pia Dahl Andersen/Mora Eland (Norway) and Katharina Schwachhofer/Elena Stoltze from Lake Constance.
Buhl within striking distance in Ilca 7
In the Ilca 7, Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Bernaz is clearly heading for overall victory with a ten-point lead over Australian Zac Littlewood. Bernaz benefited in the last day's race from slip-ups by Tomasgaard and Buhl, who are a further three points behind. Five weeks before the Olympic Games in Marseille, the Frenchman enjoyed catching his breath in Kiel: "The Olympic Games at home mean a lot of pressure. In Kiel I am one of many. It's nice to simply sail at a high level here."
ILCA 6 theoretically pre-decided
The Kiel Week gold medal in the ILCA 6 women's event also seems to be already taken. Agata Barwinska (Poland) takes a good 13-point lead over Anna Munch (Denmark) into the final, followed by Mara Stransky (Australia). The field behind them no longer has a chance of winning a medal. The Kiel Week was disappointing for Julia Büsselberg (Berlin) after her victory at the start. In the end, she even missed out on the medal race in 13th place and was forced to retire one day before the end.
Danish lead in the 49er
In the Olympic men's skiff 49er, the only way to victory is through the Danes Frederik Rask/Jakob Precht Jensen. "It was great fun on the course today, in this wind and against this backdrop," said Rask. They had sailed for the KielerWoche.TV live broadcast on the Medienbahn Hotel directly in front of the Olympic harbour in Schilksee. Their Kieler Woche success is now pretty certain, especially as they know the area well. For the interim duo Fabian Rieger/Linov Scheel (Berlin/Kiel) there is still a chance of a medal after a good day. They worked their way up to fourth place behind Richard Schultheis/Youenn Bertin (Malta) and Tytus Butowski/Borys Podumis (Poland).
470s beaten off
The 470 class started its penultimate day overheated. Both the leading team Laura Pukropski/Thorben Schlüter and the fifth-placed Catharina Schaaff/Colin Liebig had to abandon the regatta due to feverish illnesses among their foresailors. "That's very disappointing. It's the first time we've been in this situation from a sporting perspective. We discussed it a lot, but it was not possible to start. We now have to deal with it," said Laura Pukropski. The German 470 teams thus missed the chance of a top placing before the final on Wednesday. The Swedes Hedvig and Hugo Liljegren took advantage of this to go into the medal race ahead of the Ukrainians Yehor Samarin/Yelyzaveta Vasylenko and a Polish trio. With a narrow points gap, a lot is still possible there.
29er Euro Cup
After Kiel Week means before the international championships for the youngsters. The entourage of the top 29ers moves on from the Kiel Week Euro Cup in Schleswig-Holstein directly to Gdynia/Poland for the European Championships. The brothers Lucas and Moritz Hamm from Chiemsee continued their rise up the rankings on the last day of racing in the junior skiff. However, they were unable to make it onto the podium. In fourth place, they had to concede gold, silver and bronze to the teams from Poland and Great Britain: Behind Lewandowska/Krolik, James Crossley/Sam Webb (Great Britain) and Bartisz Zmudzinski/August Sobczak (also Poland) took silver and bronze.
"We are very happy. It's great to win here," said the victorious helmswoman Ewa Lewandowska, and her coxswain added the secret of their success: "Training together. We work a lot together in a group of eight or nine teams and sail a lot of regattas."
And the Poles had even more reason to celebrate: in addition to the overall victory, Lewandowska/Krolik also took the mixed victory (U17: Amelie Röpke/Ben Seigwasser, Germany). The best all-female crew were Poland's Alicja Tutkowska/Alicja Dampc (U17: Malena Rüegge/Liv Wicki, Switzerland), while the men's victory went to Great Britain's Crossley/Webb (U17: Bartosz Zmudzinski/August Sobczak, Poland).
German victory in the 420
After Kiel Week, the 420s have various destinations on the agenda. While the open class will hold its Euro in Portoroz/Slovenia at the beginning of July, the youngsters have their sights set on the Youth Euro in Thessaloniki/Greece at the end of July. Esther Rodenhausen/Luisa Becker (Hamburg) have put themselves in a strong position for next week's European Championships, securing overall success with an impressive series of five wins in the eight races. They defied an early start disqualification to take the gold ahead of the Ukrainians Sviatoslav Madonich/Dmytro Karabadzhak and the Bavarian crew from Lake Starnberg, Felicitas Spitz/Johanna von Lepel.
"To be honest, we were nervous today. We tried to stay out of difficult situations and take it as easy as possible. Our speed was very good," reported the winners, who celebrated their first Kieler Woche gold after winning the U17 women's World Championship title last year. In the coming season, they want to attack in the 49er FX.
The action on the lake railway
A full programme with four races was also sailed on the sea course for the Kiel Cup and X99 Gold Cup. The measure of all things among the fast yachts (ORC A+B) is the Danish "Dixi 4" of Erik Stannow, which has five wins and a third place in the list after six races. In the ORC C+D group, the "Patent 4" is currently sailing from Kiel on course for success. The team led by owner Jürgen Klinghardt won the Aalregatta, but got stuck on the return regatta.
"We were actually well positioned to the wind there too, but there was a current in Eckernförde Bay and we were on the wrong side," Klinghardt reported on the small slip-up. But with the start of the Kiel Cup, the crew of the Italia 9.98 was once again a model of consistency, taking two victories on day one and seamlessly building on this strong record on the second Kiel Cup day. Klinghardt is now looking forward to the finale, but has to leave straight away for work reasons. He will not be able to take part in the Silver Ribbon. The "Patent 4" will still be there. Oliver Voß will then take on the role of skipper.
Kieler Woche is an absolute must for the "Patent" - and has been for decades. The project, which started with a small Sprinta Sport, then led to the X99 and finally to the ORC scene, is now in its 34th year.
Mast breakage on "Hoppetosse"
The X99s are celebrating a strong comeback at Kieler Woche, organising their Gold Cup, the unofficial world championship, as part of the regatta week. 18 crews are at the start, and the Danish flag is flying at the head of the fleet with the crew of the leading Thomas Nielsen from Svendborg. The crew of Erik Riebe (Greifswald) learnt that the conditions off Kiel are always challenging. In the third race of the day, the mast on the "Hoppetosse" broke on an otherwise perfect sailing day on the Kiel Fjord.
