Olympic sailing: Miami gold for Jurczok/Lorenz: "They seem to be flying!"

Victoria Jurczok and Anika Lorenz rang in the new season off Miami with a commanding victory: With four race wins in eight races and a total of just 17 points to their name, the Berliners had already gained an early lead over the strong competition at the World Cup regatta off Miami in initially light winds. And they never faltered in the stronger winds on the last days of the series. The successful crew from the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club is the measure of all things in the 49erFX Olympic class for the time being, such was the performance of Victoria "Püppi" Jurczok and Anika Lorenz off the coast of Florida. "We dominated the week. Our experience certainly contributed to this, especially in the stronger winds," said helmswoman Jurczok, who successfully worked with her foresailor Anika Lorenz during the winter to increase the crew's weight. Each of the two sailors, who are chronically too light, are still three kilograms short of their ideal weight, which they are approaching with a specially developed nutrition and fitness plan in the same painstaking way that other people struggle to lose weight.

Team-mates Tina Lutz (Chiemsee-Yachtclub) and Susann Beucke (Hannoverscher Yacht-Club) achieved a remarkably good overall result for Germany in the 49erFX in sixth place. The two women's crews form a training group with coach Dave Evans and had already shown at the 2016 European Championships with gold and bronze that they are a force to be reckoned with on the way to the 2020 Olympic Games. Back then, Tina Lutz and Susann Beucke won the European championships in Kiel. The lightweights Jurczok/Lorenz had capsized in strong winds in the European Championship final in Strander Bucht, but had managed to save bronze. Now they withstood the strong winds well and secured World Cup gold ahead of Miami with second place in the final. But Lutz/Beucke also shone at the start of the year with a win on the day, a second place and a total of four single-digit results.

Susann Beucke expressed the mutual respect between the FX artists, saying halfway through the regatta: "Vicky and Anika seem to be flying!" Beucke explained the goodness of both teams as follows: "We are lucky that we are now only four sailors in the team and can therefore train much more specifically than was previously the case in the large group. Another point is that we are very different characters and sailing types. We can therefore benefit a lot from each other in training. We spent 15 days training in Portugal, where we worked together very intensively, swapping crews, boats, everything. That really helped a lot." Beucke's assessment is clear: "We have an extremely good coach and two good boats that are better than at the European Championships."

Tim Fischer and Fabian Graf also used the first of two final days at the World Cup off Miami to put in a formidable performance on Saturday. In the absence of the two most successful German 49er crews, Erik Heil/Thomas Plößel (bronze medallists in Rio) and Justus Schmidt/Max Boehme (European champions), the 23-year-old helmsman from the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein and his 21-year-old coxswain from the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club finished fifth in the medal final in fourth place, just missing out on the podium. They hadn't expected that either. Tim Fischer said: "We are surprised ourselves. But we seem to be developing into good all-rounders." With a new boat in action, the German duo were able to hold their own against the competition.

The World Cup regatta comes to an end on Sunday with more medal races. Vice world champion and active speaker Philipp Buhl will then fight for silver or bronze in the Laser. Because the leader and Olympic champion Tom Burton from Australia can no longer be caught before the final and has secured the World Cup gold, the remaining two podium places are at stake for five of his pursuers. Buhl starts the showdown in third place, one point behind double world champion Nick Thompson from Great Britain and three points ahead of Rio bronze medallist Sam Meech from New Zealand. "I wasn't particularly happy with my preliminary day, but I'm still in a position to win a medal in the final," said Buhl pugnaciously. In the men's 470, two teams qualified for the medal final on Sunday: Simon Diesch/Philipp Autenrieth and Malte Winkel/Matti Cipra.

In addition to Jurczok/Lorenz, the first World Cup winners in Miami on Saturday were France's Louis Giard and Hélène Noesmoen in the men's and women's RS:X men's and women's surfing disciplines, the Brits Dylan Fletcher-Scott and Stuart Bithell in the 49er and the Australians Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin in the Nacra17, who had won silver behind Santi Lange and Ceci Carranza Saroli at the 2016 Olympic Games, but have now relegated the two Argentinians to second place as part of their second joint Olympic campaign before Miami.

Once again to savour: The final races from Saturday