Olympic sailing: "More would have been possible"

The last day of the qualifying round at the Laser World Championship in Mexico did not go according to plan for Philipp Buhl. The 26-year-old helmsman from the Alpsee-Immenstadt Sailing Club dropped back to ninth place after races seven and eight and was a little annoyed about the missed opportunities. Although the battle for the medals is far from over for the Sonthofener before the last six races of the main round, he would have liked a better starting position in the field of 112 starters from 51 nations for the three-day final sprint in the gold fleet.

In the seventh race, Buhl was able to work his way up from intermediate position 25 to tenth place in his typically combative manner after not quite choosing the wrong side of the course and was well motivated by the successful race to catch up. "My strategy wasn't quite right, but I was still very fast again in the end."

In the eighth race, Buhl got into trouble through no fault of his own when an opponent's bow got caught in the mainsheet of his Laser about 20 seconds before the start. The two dinghies floundered on the water for four seconds until they were able to free themselves from each other. That was an "expensive" four seconds, as Buhl could no longer find a gap through which he could get to the front and had to start from the second row. "That was unfortunate," said Buhl, who would like to add a third World Championship medal to the two he has already won in Mexico in 2013 (bronze) and 2015 (silver). Buhl finished the eighth race in tenth place and regretted: "I had a very good plan and, in hindsight, it would have worked out perfectly."

However, Buhl has by no means given up his hopes of precious metal. The Allgäuer has three days and six races left to catch up with the leaders. The British defending champion Nick Thompson is in the lead with just 16 points on his World Championship account. The nine-time world champion and double Olympic champion Robert Scheidt (33 points) has moved up to third place behind the Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Bernaz (21 points), who has been sailing very consistently at this World Championship. With 46 points, Buhl is 13 points behind third place and says: "Ten and eleven today were not ideal, but anything but bad. I'm still doing well. But I could have done better."

Click here for the interim results