A small sensation seems possible at the Finn Dinghy World Championship off Gaeta in Italy. Two thirds of the regatta have been completed, with two days and a maximum of three races left until the medal final for the star-studded fleet. And in Germany, interest and excitement are growing, as 21-year-old Philipp Kasüske, a member of Audi Sailing Team Germany, has surprisingly taken the lead. After four regatta days and four races, the helmsman from the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club is now fighting for a world championship medal, possibly even the world championship title! Before the start of the World Championships, the young Berliner had "only" set himself the goal of finishing in the top 25 ...
The Finn dinghy helmsman is surprisingly leading the field at the World Championships in the Olympic single-handed class.
The Finn class has a great tradition in Germany. Willi Kuhweide and Jochen Schümann are the two best-known German sailors to have won their first Olympic victories in the Finn. Jürgen Vogler won the Finn Gold Cup for the GDR in 1957. In 1965, Jürgen Mier won the coveted World Championship title. Willi Kuhweide triumphed at the Finn World Championships in 1963, 1966 and 1967. Jochen Schümann, who has only competed in the Finn Gold Cup once in his career, lacks this title in his illustrious collection. Schümann said: "I am happy for Phillip and that he can show that something is possible in Finn. I hope he can keep it up." Wolfgang Gerz won the most important trophy in the Olympic class in 1981, and most recently it was Thomas Schmidt from Hamburg who won the Gold Cup in 1988. It has been 28 years since this last German Finn World Championship success.
Now another German sailor has the chance to end the long drought. Phillip Kasüske has sailed his way into the lead in the World Championships with 18-9-1-2. A maximum of three races will follow on Thursday, followed by the medal final on Saturday. However, multiple world champion and Olympic favourite Giles Scott is breathing down Kasüske's neck after a botched start and a good race to catch up. Although he was still 16 points behind after the four races, the worst result - Scott's 38th place - can be cancelled out from the fifth race onwards. Lurking in third place is Deniss Karpak from Estonia and behind him the Olympic silver medallist Jonas Høgh-Christensen, while the regular Dutch top five sailor Pieter-Jan Postma has dropped back to tenth place.
Kasüske himself was doubly pleased, for himself and the team: "There were many good individual results throughout the German team. I am very confident that we will achieve a lot in the coming years." This refers to the four-strong young training group led by coach Per Baggøe. Kasüske is approaching his own final sprint with determination, but also calmly: "My goal was to finish in the top 25 for the C squad. If I finish in the top 18, that would even qualify me for the B squad. So far, things are going much better than expected, and if I finish in the top ten here, I will still have exceeded expectations by a lot. I just sail race after race and enjoy it when I get such good results."
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
