Olympic sailing: Mission Miami: Olympic sailors make a strong start to the World Cup

That's his declaration of intent: Philipp Buhl took the lead right at the start of the World Cup regatta off Miami. In unusually light winds, the 28-year-old from Sonthofen took a clear lead with 6th and 3rd place, gaining an eight-point advantage over second-placed Loïck Queyroux in a strong field of 70 sailors. Double world champion Nick Thompson is in sixth place after finishing 11th and 15th. "It wasn't exactly my favourite conditions, but I managed the starts well and I also had a good overview," said Buhl (Segelclub Alpsee Immenstadt). Then he smiled and added: "I'm sure I still have a bit of self-confidence from the Star Sailors League in the Bahamas in my rucksack." In December, the active spokesman for the German Sailing Team came fifth with Markus Koy (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein) in the prominent Star Concert of the Sailors League and received a lot of international recognition for this at the first Star Boat Regatta of his career.

A clip worth watching about Philipp Buhl's Olympic campaign: in 2020, the Sonthofen native wants to compete for precious metal in the historic Olympic waters of Enoshima, where Willy Kuhweide once won his legendary gold medal

At the first World Cup regatta of the year off Miami with 543 athletes from 50 countries, a number of other German Olympic sailors also performed brilliantly on the first day, most notably Victoria Jurczok and Anika Lorenz from the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club, who are in second place after the first two races. "The conditions were very light and my thighs were burning," said helmswoman Vicky Jurczok, summarising the challenges of the day. Her team-mates Tina Lutz and Susann Beucke opened the series with ninth place. With fifth place, Tim Fischer and Fabian Graf from Kiel also made a very good start to the regatta, which ends on 27 and 28 January with the final medal races in the ten Olympic disciplines.

With sporting greetings from the athletes: The Olympic sailors open their season off Miami

In the Nacra 17, the newly formed crew of comeback helmsman Johannes Polgar and Carolina Werner (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein/Kieler Yacht-Club) sailed straight into the top ten at their first joint World Cup regatta after just six weeks of training together. The duo finished the day in seventh place with a second place, leaving not only Olympic champion Santi Lange with Cecilia Carranza Saroli behind them. Polgar said: "It was a very focussed performance from the whole team today. We are very happy, considering the complexity of the whole thing, and satisfied with our progress so far. We must now continue with the same intensity." The lead in the foiling catamaran bullet Nacra 17 was taken by Thomas Zajac and his new foresailor Barbara Matz, the Austrian bronze medallists from Rio, ahead of the silver medallists Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin from Australia.

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