A sigh of relief in the German national sailing team Audi Sailing Team Germany: after the Laser, 49erFX, RS:X Men, 470 Men and Women and Nacra 17 disciplines, the starting place for the Olympic regatta in Rio de Janeiro 2016 has now also been secured for the 49er Men. Erik Heil and Thoma Plößel completed this most important task in the 49er and 49erFX World Championships off Buenos Aires with an outstanding fifth place. However, this has not yet earned them an individual Olympic start entitlement. Heil/Plößel will continue to fight for an Olympic 49er ticket for next year with their sparring partners and friends Justus Schmidt and Max Boehme from the Kiel Yacht Club.
In this elimination duel between the two best German 49er crews, the younger team from Kiel had initially taken a twelve-point lead over Heil/Plößel with their victory at the 49er European Championship in late summer and the 25 points they collected for it. The tide has now turned at the World Championships. Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel increased their account balance by 16 points to a total of 29 points with fifth place in the World Championship. Justus Schmidt and Max Boehme, on the other hand, were unable to score at all at the World Championships because Boehme, like countless other World Championship participants, was struck down and weakened by a persistent gastrointestinal illness during the three-day qualification period. The team from Kiel had given up after the three-day World Championship qualification and missing the cut for the gold fleet of the top 25 boats.
The decision as to which of the two teams will compete for Germany at the 2016 Olympic Games will now be postponed until the World Cup regatta off Palma de Mallorca in spring 2016. "So there will be a showdown in the spring," said helmsman Justus Schmidt, whose team had already responded to the World Cup fiasco with the motto of the "Pink Panther": "I'll be back, no question!"
Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel have the better starting position for the final duel, whose strong World Championship result has given them new momentum in the fight for a ticket to Rio. In the light of this success, Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel thanked their team-mates in particular after the World Championship final. Because three days before the end of the World Championships, Thomas Plößel had also been struck down by the infection that was rampant in the World Championship quarter. The team initially kept this a secret so as not to signal any signs of weakness to the international competition in the battle for a place in the national team. Internally, however, everyone involved rotated during the night from Thursday to Friday, going through all the scenarios in the search for a possible replacement in co-operation with DSV sports director Nadine Stegenwalner in Hamburg. While Plößel, like so many of the World Championship participants, vomited violently again and again on Thursday evening, the question of all questions was directed at Justus Schmidt and Max Boehme, who has since recovered: Would Boehme deputise for Thomas Plößel in the four scheduled races on Friday, should that become necessary?
Schmidt and Boehme took less than five minutes to think about their answer. They had to weigh up the ongoing battle for the national starting place, without which neither of the two German crews would be able to compete in Rio 2016, and their own interests in the hunt for points for their individual elimination accounts. Erik Heil said: "Justus and Max were faced with the choice of perhaps shooting themselves in the foot by helping us in the fight for the Olympic ticket or helping us to secure the national starting place, which is important for all of us. Then Max said succinctly: 'Let's get sailing. We are very, very grateful to them for that. We have the most loyal training group in the world!" The fact that Thomas Plößel got back on his feet quicker than expected and was able to compete himself on Friday did not make the offer of help from his rivals any less worthwhile from Heil's point of view.
The showdown between the two friendly German 49er crews will now take place at the 2016 World Cup regatta off Palma de Mallorca. Heil/Plößel (29 points) start the final of the pre-Olympic national duel for the Rio ticket with a four-point lead over Schmidt/Boehme (25 points). Erik Heil said of his own chances: "It's difficult to judge. Before the start of the elimination series, I would have rated the odds at 80:20 in our favour. Then came the European Championship victory and the medal rewarded with bonus points for Justus and Max. That made us work very hard. We've always been successful in Palma in recent years and are optimistic going into the decisive regatta."
The world champions in the 49er in Argentina were the New Zealand world sailors of the year and America's Cup shooting stars Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, who defended their title so successfully that victory was no longer in their grasp even before the final, double scored medal race. After a furious final spurt, the Australian Olympic champions Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen, who also fell ill during the World Championships and was only fit again towards the end of the series, came second and demonstrated this. Spain's Federico Alonso and Arturo Alonso Tellechea secured bronze.
In the women's 49erFX field, no German crew was able to qualify for the medal final of the top ten crews. The best DSV team were Berliners Victoria Jurczok and Anika Lorenz from the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club in twelfth place. Tina Lutz and Susann Beucke finished the World Championships in 15th place, the Kiel twins Jule and Lotta Görge in 22nd place, while Leonie Meyer and Elene Stoffers, who had also fallen ill in the meantime, did not make it past 25th place. The world champions were the fast Italians Giulia Conti and Francesca Clapcich ahead of the Brazilians Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze. Denmark's Ida Marie Baad Nielsen and Marie Thusgaard Olsen secured bronze.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
