2012 Olympics: "We are proud of our surfers"

The German sailors will return from Weymouth without any medals. That has been finalised today. Kathrin Kadelbach from Berlin and Rike Belcher from Hamburg fought with risk in the last two races for a last chance at precious metal, but were not rewarded. The ladies from Berlin and Hamburg penalised an early start including a single recall in race nine with 14th place at the finish. And the last race before the final did not go according to plan either. "There was too much traffic on the course today and we just couldn't get past it," said Rike Belcher. Kathrin Kadelbach explained: "We wanted to attack. Of course, that brings with it the risk of an early start. And then there was a single recall. We drove back immediately and were actually the only early starters."

"We didn't quite find our rhythm here and fell well short of our potential, especially today," said an annoyed Kadelbach at the end of the series, "some teams sailed very radically over the course today." Rike Belcher was also disappointed with the end of the series ahead of the medal final of the women's 470 on Friday at 2 pm German time: "We are a little disappointed and frustrated because these were actually our conditions today. We actually wanted to attack and sail two good races." Kadelbach/Belcher had successfully made up ground the day before with fifth and sixth place and established loose contact with the leading group.

Taking stock, Kathrin Kadelbach also recalled the many wonderful moments of her Olympic premiere: "We are so proud of our surfers. And we would have loved them to win the medals. Moana, Toni and Pierre were a great addition to our team. The atmosphere in the German house in the Olympic Village was great - we grew closer together as a team every day." Rike Belcher also said: "It was an experience I definitely wouldn't want to miss."

Anna Tunnicliffe would gladly miss her experience today. The 2008 Laser Radial Olympic champion and top favourite in the women's match race was surprisingly eliminated in the quarter-finals on Wednesday against the team of the young Finn Silja Lethinen. The semi-finalists of the women's duelling sailors come from Australia, Finland, Spain and Russia.

While the German 470 women "now have nothing to lose" for their final on Friday and want to attack again, they will be watching the medal race of the 470 men from ashore tomorrow. Friederike's Australian husband Matthew Belcher will start as the front runner in the half-hour battle for the medals between the top ten teams. With a total of 18 points, Belcher and his co-skipper Malcolm Page will take a four-point lead over their British chasers Luke Patience and Stuart Bithell into the most important race of their careers. Belcher said before the showdown: "We're only here for one colour. It's fantastic to be in this position but you never know. We're sailing well, but we'd love to have more of a lead." Luke Patience replied calmly: "We're sailing the regatta of our lives here so far. It's our first Olympic Games and we've already secured a medal. But we didn't come here to win silver. Gold is within our reach." His co-skipper Stuart Bithill said: "It will be a neck-and-neck duel. We're not afraid of the Australians. They are just great regatta sailors."

The second sailing gold was secured on Wednesday by 49er sailors Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen for Australia. This means that Down Under is preparing to outdo the top-favoured British hosts in the nations ranking on their home turf. The New Zealanders Peter Burling and Blair Tuke secured silver in the 49er. The battle for bronze was won by Allan Norregaard and Peter Lang from Denmark in the medal final. Tobias Schadewaldt and Hannes Baumann from Kiel narrowly missed out on a place in the medal final of the top ten crews in eleventh place.

In their 22nd participation in an Olympic regatta, the German sailors in England came away empty-handed for the seventh time. The last time there was a "zero number" was eight years ago in Athens. Back then, however, experienced sailors such as Roland Gäbler ("That was the worst regatta of my life") and Alex Hagen failed. This year, the medals were just a little bit too high for a young team with no Olympic experience. As Simon Grotelüschen put it so well? "It just didn't work out a little bit." That should change by 2016.