The Olympic regatta has its first "Weymouth gate": England's sailing idol Ben Ainslie was able to overtake Denmark's Jonas Hogh-Christensen, who has sailed outstandingly so far, twice for the first time on Thursday and reduce his gap to the surprising leader to just three points before the last two races until the Finn Dinghies' medal race on Sunday. But the 35-year-old was anything but pleased when he came ashore after the races.
Ainslie accused both Jonas Hogh-Christensen and the Dutch sailor Pieter-Jan Postma of conspiring against him. This was preceded by Ainslie's close rounding of a turning mark on the water in race eight. Both Hogh-Christensen and Postma immediately signalled that Ainslie had touched the buoy by waving protest flags and shouting loudly. The Briton later swore on land that he had not done exactly that.
Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he exonerated himself with a penalty cringe. After all, he had to assume that he would not be able to successfully defend himself against two witnesses in a possible protest hearing. On land, Ainslie stomped ashore with some anger in his stomach and said: "Jonas and the Dutchman have teamed up against me. That really upsets me and will make me even angrier tomorrow." The Brit, who is usually only brash and aggressive on the water, literally said: "That pisses me off." We prefer not to translate.
Jonas Hogh-Christensen's reply came straight away: "If Ben really believes that, then he should protest. Instead, he turned the penalty circle. Gangs don't suddenly form here against another sailor. I saw Ben touch the barrel. And so did the Dutchman."
You want to believe both sides, and yet one of them must have cheated. But who? The search for the truth with the help of television images had remained unsuccessful until the evening. There had already been a prelude to the escalating dispute in the battle for precious metal on Tuesday. It is hard to believe that Ainslie had pointed out to the Dutchman after a start that he had supposedly started early. Pieter-Jan Postma then actually turned back to the line, but was not one of the early starters and was accordingly furious. Ben Ainslie later apologised on land for his comment. This did little to appease the Dutchman, who was probably also annoyed at his own stupidity: Who goes back to the line because an opponent in the battle for Olympic medals advises it?
The Finn sailors' emotions are running high and higher. It's hard to imagine what will happen in the last two races on Friday. Not to mention the medal race on Sunday, when more than ten thousand fans will want to see their sailing star Ben Ainslie win on the greens of "The Nothe" fortress and in Weymouth's beach arena. Jonas Hogh-Christensen's father Jens and a Danish fan base as well as supporters of other medal contenders are also expected in the British sailing arena on the medal course "The Nothe".
Toni Wilhelm and Mona Delle would like to fight for a medal there on 7 August. The two RS:X surfers are and remain the powerful and cheerful figureheads of the DSV fleet at the halfway point of the Olympic regatta. Toni Wilhelm surfed to second place on Thursday, finishing second and fifth. Two successful starts, a very good tactical performance in race 5 and a successful race to catch up in the sixth race gave the man from the Black Forest excellent prospects. He came off the piste suitably relaxed and said: "I'm really happy with my performance, but we'll have to wait until the end to see if it's enough for something big." The man from the Black Forest remains down-to-earth and modest, will meet his parents in Weymouth on tomorrow's rest day and is looking forward to a visit from his Swiss girlfriend Anne-Sophie Thilo.
In the evening, YACHT online asked the "Flying Dutchman" Dorian van Rijsselberge, who is leading the classification with five out of six possible race wins at an outstanding speed, how Toni Wilhelm could possibly catch up with him. The long surfer laughed and said: "Toni should just put a rocket on his board..." After a short pause, he added a little more seriously: "Toni surfs great and is extremely fast."
Sunshine" Moana Delle also returned to the Olympic harbour in Portland with a beaming smile. After finishing ninth and fifth, the Kiel native will start the next races on Saturday in fourth place overall. The 23-year-old reported: "I had a lot of fun out there again today. We had almost typical Weymouth conditions. It was more speed racing, so not quite my favourite conditions. My starts were okay. I didn't get the post-start phase perfect in both races, but then I was able to catch up again."
Star boat sailors Robert Stanjek and Frithjof Kleen suffered a setback. The Berliners from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein and the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club suffered an early start disqualification in their seventh race and crossed the finish line of the eighth race in eleventh place. As a result, they dropped back to eighth place in the overall ranking ahead of the medal race for the top ten Star boat crews next Sunday.
DSV Sports Director and Deputy Chef de Mission Nadine Stegenwalner defended the crew in Weymouth: "The early start is of course annoying for the team. A false start like that shouldn't happen, but it can happen in such a world-class field. You have to accept a certain amount of risk if you want to compete with the best. I'm sure that the two of them will attack again tomorrow to get the best possible starting position for the medal race." As expected, the two double Olympic champions Iain Percy and Robert Scheidt will be fighting a duel of giants at the head of the Star boat fleet. Before the last two races leading up to the medal race, however, the British have now gained a nine-point lead with their furious downwind speed, which even Robert Scheidt and his co-skipper Bruno Prada will not be able to equalise.
The youngest team under the German flag also started the Olympic series on Thursday. Ferdinand Gerz and Patrick Follmann from Munich, both 23 years young, sailed to 15th and 17th place in their Olympic debut in strong winds of around 20 knots and are in 16th place overall. Helmsman Ferdinand Gerz said: "I'm not dissatisfied, but there's room for improvement." On Friday, the 470 sailors Kathrin Kadelbach and Friederike Belcher will finally start their Olympic premiere.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
