Frederieke Belcher experienced three magical moments on Friday evening at the opening ceremony for the XXX. Olympic Games in the stadium in London: "The moment when we entered the stadium, the moment when seven young athletes lit the Olympic flame and the moment when the British team entered the stadium and the whole stadium roared." Coxswain Kathrin Kadelbach also takes the memory of the illuminated Olympic flame back to the regatta as her favourite moment. After returning from London, where the sailors had spent the night in the athletes' "big" Olympic village, she reported: "For me, that was the most magical moment. I could feel the heat of the fire on my face."
Eleven DSV sailors travelled to London with "Deputy Chef de Mission" Nadine Stegenwalner to witness the opening ceremony, to enter the heart of the Olympic Games together with the 392 athletes of the German Olympic team in front of 80,000 guests in the stadium and around a billion people watching on screens all over the world and to fill up on motivation.
Only star boat helmsman Robert Stanjek had a heavy heart and decided not to take part because the regatta for the two-man keelboats starts on Sunday and, like many other international sailors, he did not want to take on the hardships of the hours-long journey to and from the event and be disturbed in his concentration. Stanjek's skipper Frithjof Kleen, however, took the risk and was rewarded: "It was a unique experience with lots of goose bumps when the fire was lit," said Kleen, "I am happy to admit that I can understand the concerns expressed to me even better in retrospect. The journey was indeed exhausting, but it was well worth it. The experience really motivates me."
The two Berliners Robert Stanjek and Frithjof Kleen will be the first German sailors to start the Olympic regatta on Sunday. Their opening race starts at 1.30 p.m. local time (2.30 p.m. German time) on a northerly course in Weymouth Bay. The second race of the day is also scheduled for the star boat sailors on this course. After a sunny Saturday, however, the weather forecast predicts grey skies for the sailors on Sunday. Nevertheless, twelve to 14 knots of wind should ensure good sailing conditions.
"We'll take it as it comes," said Frithjof Kleen, "our goal is a place in the medal race of the top ten teams on 5 August. And if you can do that in such a strong field, almost anything can happen." With 16 teams, the fleet of Star boats is the second smallest after the manageable field of just 12 match race women's teams, which will also start their first round robin rounds (each team against each other) on Sunday, but without German participation.
Star boat party for Brits and Brazilians?
The top favourites in the Star boat class are the Olympic champions Iain Percy and Andrew "Bart" Simpson as well as the world champions Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada from Brazil. The two helmsmen have already won two Olympic gold medals each. Both crews dominate the class so convincingly that even the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) formulated this headline for a press release: "The star sailors set out to spoil the party for the Brits and Brazilians."
Half a dozen Starboat teams had already suffered a minor setback before the first starting signal when they failed the measurement test. Whilst Stanjek/Kleen overcame this hurdle without any problems, six teams had to do a detention and take part in keel grinding, including the British, the Irish, the Polish Olympic champion Mateusz Kusznierewics, the New Zealanders with helmsman Hamish Papper and the French with helmsman Xavier Rohart. In the meantime, they have all completed the re-measurement correctly.
Escaped with a scare
Greek reader sailor Vagelis Himonas escaped with a scare when he took his boat, which was provided by the organiser - as for all Laser participants - from the general zone into his team area and worked on it. The 32-year-old could have been disqualified from the race for this unauthorised but unintentional land manoeuvre, but instead the jury left it at a stern warning.
Ben Ainslie would not make such a mistake. If only because the Finn dinghy sailors are competing with their own equipment. The darling of the Brits is the top favourite in the Olympic Finn regatta, and with a possible fourth gold medal in addition to the silver medal he won in 1996, he could push the legendary Dane Paul Elvström off his throne and become the most successful Olympic sailor of all time.
As for the star boats, the medal final for the Finn dinghy sailors will also take place on 5 August. On that day, the whole of England will be looking towards Weymouth and keeping their fingers crossed for the sailing superstar. The spectator tickets for this day were the most sought-after. A total of 63,000 tickets were available for a seat (without a chair!) on the manicured British greens of the elevated castle complex "The Nothe" for the two-week Olympic sailing regatta. But they were all sold out back in 2011. On the spectator-friendly course "The Nothe", named after the fortress, the Finn Dinghis will start their first race on Sunday at 12 noon, before leaving the arena to the match racers and switching to the Star boats on the north course for their second race.
Ainslie and the opening curse
For the exceptional sailor Ben Ainslie, anything less than a gold medal would be a huge disappointment. The 35-year-old is at least outwardly relaxed about the resulting pressure. "I know that outside expectations of me are high, but they will never reach my own." Ainslie, who lit the Olympic flame in Weymouth on Saturday evening, can also laugh about the phenomenon of his conspicuously often botched first days of a regatta: "I don't know whether it's just bad luck or whether I perhaps even need it as a wake-up call." Nevertheless, he doesn't want this negative streak to continue at the Olympic Games: "It would be nice if I could start the series here with a solid result." That is exactly what he will try to do on Sunday when the first Olympic starting signal for the Finn sailors is given at 12 noon local time.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
