With fifth and sixth places for the men and fifth and eighth places for the women, the German skiff sailors showed at the World Championships in Porto, Portugal, that they are still among the best in the world. In addition, the youngsters proved that the German Sailing Team in the 49er and 49erFX disciplines will be a force to be reckoned with in the future and beyond the 2020 Olympic Games. Kiel's Justus Schmidt and Max Boehme (both Kieler Yacht-Club) and Berlin's Rio bronze medallists Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel (both Norddeutscher Regatta Verein) made a strong impression on the fleet of 81 crews from all over the world with their fifth and sixth places at the World Championships, which they tied on points. At times they sailed on course for a medal, but in the end they were beaten by two outstanding British crews and the teams from Austria and Poland. The men's World Championship title went to Dylan Fletcher-Scott/Stuart Bithell ahead of their compatriots James Peters/Fynn Sterritt and the Austrians Benjamin Bildstein/David Hussl. Capricious weather had completely paralysed these condensed world title fights for the 49er fleet on three of the six race days. The women had to take two and a half days off. "It was probably the worst World Championships we've ever taken part in," said Erik Heil.
The live coverage of the final day shows how close the decisive races were.
The Berlin 49er helmsman and his coxswain started the season late, as did their training partners Justus Schmidt and Max Boehme, who took a break for almost a year due to their studies. "Of course we would have liked to attack the medal places, because our races didn't feel bad on the water," said Erik Heil. "Our results are okay because we started the season late due to study commitments and other projects. It would be almost arrogant to expect to be at the top again straight away. We're now working on that with our strong training group." Justus Schmidt was also pleased with the result: "That's a very nice statement: both German crews are so far ahead with the same number of points. A cool team performance!" And this was rounded off by impressive individual performances from the junior teams Nils Carstensen/Jan Frigge (17th), Jakob Meggendorfer/Andreas Spranger (19th) and Tim Fischer/Fabian Graf (21st).
Berliners Victoria Jurczok and Anika Lorenz were also in medal contention at times, but missed out on the podium in fifth place like the men. The crew from the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club performed consistently well in some very strong winds. The new European champions Tina Lutz and Susann Beucke (Chiemsee Yacht-Club/Hannoverscher Yacht-Club) sailed to eighth place in the Portuguese waters off Porto. The German Sailing Team was thus able to place two teams in the top ten in both Olympic disciplines - a scenario that other disciplines in Germany are still working on.
Jurczok/Lorenz did not lose their quite possible medal to just anyone: the 49erFX podium at the World Championship was occupied by the same teams that had sailed to the podium at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro - just in a different order: Olympic bronze medallists Jena Mai Hansen (soon to compete in the Volvo Ocean Race) and Katja Slaskov-Iversen from Denmark were crowned world champions ahead of Brazilian Olympic champions Martine Grael (also competing in the Volvo Ocean Race in the footsteps of her father Torben Grael) and Kahena Kunze as well as New Zealanders Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech. Jule and Lotta Görge from Kiel sailed to 16th place. The upcoming annual highlights for the Olympic sailors include the Laser Sailing World Championship in Split, Croatia, from 12 September, where Philipp Buhl wants to fight for a medal.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
