A rollercoaster ride is nothing compared to what Philipp Kasüske experienced at the Finn Gold Cup in Italian waters off Gaeta. The Berlin helmsman from the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club had travelled to Italy with the aim of achieving a place in the top 25 at the World Championships for Olympic single-handed sailors. After four of the six regatta days and four races, the 21-year-old suddenly found himself at the top of the overall rankings. Behind him were sailing greats such as the current Finn dominator, Ainslie throne successor, world champion and America's Cup tactician Giles Scott, Olympic silver medallist Jonas Hogh-Christensen and a number of other top people.
Kasüske had achieved his good results and one day's win on his way to the top in light winds, in which he has often travelled with coach Baggøe and the young German Finn training group this year. However, when the wind picked up considerably on the fifth day of the world championship, which is traditionally called the Finn Gold Cup in this class, Kasüske was no longer able to stand up to the experienced sailors in the field and slipped back from first place to eleventh place with three double-digit results in just one day. This seemed to have jeopardised his almost certain participation in the medal race. However, due to the disqualification of an opponent, Kasüske moved up and was allowed to enter the medal final after all, where he finished ninth.
Giles Scott secured his fourth World Championship title ahead of Jonas Hogh-Christensen and Dutch rider Pieter-Jan Postma. Phillip Kasüske finished the title fights in tenth place, fuelling plenty of motivation for the coming years. "I couldn't have dreamed of it any better," said Kasüske after the award ceremony, "I'm super happy with 10th place, even if things didn't go as I would have liked in between. I hope that my success will not only give me, but also the training group, momentum and that we will continue to make progress in the coming years."
The young training group, to which Kasüske belongs under the direction of coach Per Baggøe, is training for the 2020 Olympic Games. No German Finn helmsman has a chance of being nominated for the 2016 Olympic Games, as the national starting place could not be secured in this class. Max Kohlhoff from Kiel sailed to 31st place in the field of 73 Finn dinghies, Eike Martens to 34th place.
Philipp Buhl: successful start to the World Championships with minor mistakes
Philipp Buhl started the Laser World Championship in Mexico almost simultaneously with the end of the Finn Gold Cup. The Sonthofen-based Olympic hopeful of the German national sailing team opened the title fights on Thursday in a solid seventh place. After winning bronze at the 2013 World Championships and silver at the 2015 World Championships, the active spokesman for the Olympic sailors is aiming to win another medal three months before the Olympic Games. "The wind was pretty cool at the start, between 13 and 17 knots. Super nice wind, sea breeze, very hot. My performance was quite good at the start with a third place in the first race and first place at the windward mark in the second race. Then there was a small protest situation due to a slight contact. That was annoying. After that I got a yellow flag and ended up twelfth. So I made life a bit difficult for myself at the start, but there are still six days to go and the most important thing is that I can get off to a good start and be fast. That's going well!"
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
