Kieler Woche: How do you beat sailing supermen?

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke are not only World Sailors of the Year and the new America's Cup stars in Emirates Team New Zealand. They are also silver medallists at the 2012 Olympic Games in Weymouth. But what others dream of has made the high-flyers from Tauranga and Kawakawa even hungrier. "After winning silver four years ago, we wanted to do everything a bit better in the follow-up campaign and work towards dominating the 2016 Olympic Games," says 25-year-old helmsman Burling. The two Kiwis have achieved this in enviable fashion. They have not lost a major regatta since after the 2012 Olympic regatta. The world champions are also sailing up and away at Kieler Woche.

Germany's best 49er sailors and the international competition have been trying to find out why this is the case for years. Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel from Audi Sailing Team Germany are also among the favourites for the Olympic regatta, even if gold seems to have been taken. "We are constantly looking at Peter and Blair. They make clever decisions and are very, very fast. And they make the fewest mistakes." Above all, Burling and Tuke are quick to absorb and analyse given and changing conditions. This may also be due to the fact that no other sailor in the world is currently completing such a mammoth sailing programme in different areas of activity as Cup and Olympic helmsman Burling, who is also the Moth World Champion and explains: "I simply have a lot of fun in a wide variety of boat classes. If I only sailed in one class, it would probably quickly become boring and tiring."

Heil also made another observation on the Kiel Fjord, and not for the first time: "Burling turns up the speed quite a lot." The 49er sailors differentiate between "revving up" - meaning the sailors' concentration on the course, the opponents, their surroundings - and "sailing the boat", which describes the crew's concentration on sailing the skiff as fast as possible. While many crews share these tasks - one "turns up", one sails the boat - Burling and Tuke seem to "turn up" more often at the same time. "They obviously emphasise strategy even more than speed," says Heil. This may explain why Burling and Tuke sometimes seem like clairvoyants, because they apparently anticipate turns well in advance and capitalise on them.

However, Burling will have to miss one event in the coming weeks: The America's Cup World Series regatta in the British waters off Portsmouth from 21 to 24 July coincides with his last training camp in Rio. Burling did not want to reveal who will then take the helm for the Kiwis, who are leading the world series. This could give the competition a chance to catch up. It will hardly make things any easier for his Olympic opponents. "He's already booked for gold, but he has to deliver that first," said Thomas Plößel with a smile.