What a day in Weymouth: huge joy for Toni Wilhelm and Moana Delle, deep sadness for the 49er sailors Tobi Schadewaldt and Hannes Baumann. While the surfers got off to a lightning start, the dream of an Olympic medal for the Kiel 49er crew was shattered after just four races on Tuesday evening.
RS:X surfer Wilhelm made the German sailing team cheer with two third places and third place behind the top favourites Dorian van Rijsselberge and Przemyslav Miarcynski. It could even have been a second place in the second race: Wilhelm had his Polish pursuer well under control before he suddenly slowed down on the home straight for inexplicable reasons and Miarcynski was able to catch the German with a few metres to go on the line. Even the Pole was surprised afterwards: "Toni must have had something on the Finn. He was clearly ahead of me the whole time and there was no other reason why he suddenly slowed down like that."
Wilhelm himself took the mini setback in his stride in view of his outstanding opening performance. "I got off to a good start today, had good speed and also made the right tactical decisions. It was a great start." Pure joy painted itself on the Black Forest driver's face when he talked about his successful starts: "Some of the favourites like the Brit and the New Zealander lost ground today. In the second race, I even made sure of that myself, by roasting them from the top."
Moana Delle from Kiel was hardly inferior to Wilhelm, with whom she trains in a trio with coach Pierre Loquet, with fourth and fifth places as well as fifth place in the intermediate classification. Both took advantage of the fresh winds for a successful start. While Wilhelm showed off his strong wind qualities ("That was just the way I like it today!"), Delle benefited from the breeze that died down to 12 to 14 knots later in the afternoon. "Actually, I'm still a light wind aunt," she said with a grin, "but with two good starts I was able to keep up well. One place was given to me by the Brit Bryony Shaw, who capsized."
While Robert Stanjek and Frithjof Kleen moved up to seventh place in the Star boat with fourth and sixth place and will go into the rest day for Star and Finn sailors on Wednesday with the positive realisation of their improvement, the Lübeck laser sailor Simon Grotelüschen also managed to reverse the trend in the fourth race of the single-handed sailors. The 25-year-old followed up his disappointing 19th place in race three, which he owed to a capsize after a penalty, with a third place. "There you go," was the comment of more than a few observers.
"Can't" is still the motto for Franziska Goltz. The Laser Radial helmswoman from Schwerin is fighting, working hard and not giving up. Nevertheless, she slipped down to 26th place on her second day of the regatta, finishing 26th and 24th individually. Even more unfortunate on Tuesday evening were the 49er sailors Tobias Schadewaldt and Hannes Baumann, who returned from the 49er arena in the bay of Weymouth defeated. Their duel weakness had reopened in races three and four like a wound that would not heal and had become their Olympic undoing. The duo from Kiel capsized once in each race and dropped to 18th place in the ranking of the 20 planing dinghies, finishing 20th and 19th. With now three big strikes (17th, 20th, 19th) to their name, the North Germans' dream of an Olympic medal is already over after just four races.
"That was a big blow," said helmsman Tobias Schadewaldt in the evening in the Olympic harbour, "we are incredibly disappointed. Handling and communication on board were simply not right. We were once again blown away in tight situations. It was closer and tighter than our abilities allowed today." This realisation tasted particularly bitter because the Kiel team's favourite conditions prevailed on the "Portland Harbour" course with plenty of fresh wind.
However, the topic of the day in Weymouth was once again the duel between the Danish Finn high-flyer Jonas Hogh-Christensen and England's designated golden boy Ben Ainslie. After three days of racing and six races, the score between the red-bearded Scandinavian and the smart Englishman is 6:0 and the British and bookmakers' top favourite has not been able to beat the Dane once. Instead, Ainslie is only ten points behind Hogh-Christensen in second place. Every day, the gold medal that was thought to be so certain moves a little further away from the man who wanted to become the most successful sailor of all time on his home turf and knock Hogh-Christensen's legendary compatriot Paul Elvström off his throne.
Ainslie still has four races left to turn the tide. He has repeatedly lost several places on the cross and is unable to find a way against the Dane with the wonder mast, who is as fast as an arrow in the current stronger winds of around 20 knots. When asked today whether the top of his rig is particularly flexible, Hogh-Christensen replied with a knowing smile: "That's a Danish secret!" He then added: "We started the technical development a year ago and have tested maybe five or six masts. With Ben, it's probably already 50. We don't have the budget. But yes, I have a good mast!" Hogh-Christensen admits that he is surprised to be leading 6:0 against Ben Ainslie after six races. He dictated this sentence into the pads of around 25 inquisitive British journalists, not without relish. But then the likeable son of Jens Christensen, who became famous in Germany as the 1993 Admiral's Cup winner with "Container", warned against jumping to conclusions: "Including the medal races, only half of the points that can be won at this regatta have now been awarded. A ten-point lead is not yet a big cushion." Especially not when the man in pursuit is Ben Ainslie and wants nothing more in life than a fourth gold medal.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
