470 European Championship in Portugal: The mixed decision: him or her at the helm?

It was a good and instructive European Championship for the German Sailing Team: Theres Dahnke and Matti Cipra won the silver medal in the 470 Mixed sailing discipline, which has been added to the Olympic programme for 2024. Three other crews fought their way into the top ten in the mixed, women's and men's events. It was exciting to see how different the responses of the newly formed mixed crews were at their historic European Championship premiere. A look at the final results reveals that five of the top ten teams were coxed and five were coxed by women. The opening results were evenly balanced between her or him on the tiller and the other way round on the foresheet. Israeli helmsman Nitai Hasson and his foresailor Saar Tamir took the gold medal ahead of Theres Dahnke/Matti Cipra and British helmswoman Vita Heathcote with Ryan Orr. Daniel Göttlich and Anna Markfort secured fifth place behind fourth-placed Marina Lefort/Paco Lepoutre from France.

For Theres Dahnke and Matti Cipra, it was a successful debut for their newly formed crew. The two sailors from the Plauer Wassersportverein already knew each other well and had already competed and even won a German championship together in 2019. But until just now, they had both sailed in an all-female and all-male constellation. Dahnke and Birte Winkel lost out to Luise Wanser and Anstasiya Winkel, who qualified for the Olympics, by just one point in the national Olympic qualification. Matti Cipra sailed as foresailor with helmsman Malte Winkel, but the German 470 men had missed the Olympic qualification. In a new formation, Dahnek/Cipra and a number of other German 470 mixed crews are now heading for the 2024 Olympics.

The young discipline is still in its infancy, and after this summer's Olympics, other strong national and international contenders from the existing women's and men's fields will join it. Theres Dahnke was all the more delighted with her first success: "That was a good start. Mixed sailing was a lot of fun. I'm curious to see whether we'll see more female or male helmsmen in the future. The initial logic is in favour of women at the helm, because there are fewer women who are the right size to be the ideal skipper. On the other hand, it is difficult for female helmsmen to compete against the boys when rocking. On the other hand, helmsmen are more in demand when there is a lot of wind. That could be an advantage for helmsmen. For me as a female helmsman, it was a big difference sailing with a male helmsman. I now have a man at the front who is significantly taller and heavier than my previous helmswoman. That's a big physical difference that expands the helmswoman's options. It makes a lot of things easier for me than before."

DSV Sports Director Nadine Stegenwalner was delighted with the good start made by the mixed 470 duos: "It's impressive how our mixed teams were able to make their mark straight away with the silver medal and fifth place. They have put themselves in a good position for the coming years on course for Marseille 2024. It was a very promising start that gives us great confidence. I would like to congratulate both teams on this achievement and was also delighted with the solid result of the 470 women. It was great that Malte Winkel so spontaneously agreed to fill the vacancy caused by injury and take over the coaching. This kind of mutual support is excellent."

Olympic starters Luise Wanser and Anastasiya Winkel sailed to eighth place in the European Championship race off Vilamoura. With a weakened foresailor due to illness and substitute coach Malte Winkel, who had spontaneously stepped in for regular coach Riccardo de Felice after he broke his ribs, the women's crew from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein sailed to eighth place in predominantly light winds. They had hoped for a little more after their recent successes, but given the circumstances, the top ten place is also a "solid result" for the two sailors from the point of view of the DSV sports director, who are looking forward to their Olympic premiere after a year of intensive work.

The best German men's team at the 470 European Championships were Simon Diesch and Philipp Autenrieth in ninth place overall. New Zealand's Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Wilcox won the men's open continental title. The European champions are the 2018 world champions: Kevin Peponnet and Jéremie Mion. In the women's event, France's Camille Lecointre and Aloise Retornaz came out on top.

Click here for the results (please click!).