Philipp Buhl had positioned himself confidently for a medal in the qualifying round of the Laser European Championship. In third place and just two points behind the leader, the Sonthofen native started the first of the two-day main round with high hopes and a medal in his sights. It was not to be his day. "And then came the black Thursday," Buhl coach Thomas Piesker summarised. His protégé slipped from third place to tenth in the rankings, finishing 34th, 22nd and 43rd. "He didn't get off to a good start and then - unlike in the preliminary round - didn't find any passing lanes in the increasingly tight field in the main round," said Piesker. "We could have sailed five more races that day and it probably wouldn't have looked any different. It was a day like in football, where a team simply couldn't get the ball in the box even in an extra 90 minutes."
"I'm f***ing angry with myself," said Buhl after the botched race day. "After so much went wrong and I'm still in the top ten, it's not all bad though." However, Piesker was also able to look on the bright side of his protégé's pitch-black day. "A day like that can also be healing on the way to the Olympic Games. You can learn to deal with defeats and reflect on some basic approaches again." With 78 points in his account, Buhl still starts the final day with a wafer-thin chance of a medal and could work his way back towards the podium. If all three planned races take place, there is still a lot in it for the active spokesman of the German national sailing team and 2015 European Championship runner-up.
Although he is 25 points off third place, a look at the results on the final day reveals that the other favourites are also struggling with misfires. For example, the British World Champion Nick Thompson, who led the classification after the qualifying round, but squandered his title chances on Thursday with three unsuccessful races (29, 30, 30) and is hoping for a conciliatory finale today in 15th place. The starting signal for the last three European Championship races will be given today off Gran Canaria at 12 noon (1pm German time). Buhl already proved his fighting qualities at last year's World Championships and is determined to finish the title fights with a good result.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
