With another race win and 4th, 9th and 4th places, 49er helmsman Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel have earned themselves a medal chance at the Olympic test regatta before Rio de Janeiro on the day before the final. The two Berliners moved up to third place with their very good performance on their preliminary day and can still win pre-Olympic silver or bronze in the double scored final race on Friday. "We didn't have such a good race, I messed up the start and even hit the start boat. But we were still able to make up a lot of ground. Apart from the race, it was a very good day for us. We feel very comfortable with the boat we're sailing here. We will probably also ship it to Bueneos Aires for the World Championship."
New Zealand's top favourites Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have their sights set on victory in the 49er. The second-placed Austrians Nico Delle-Karth and Nikolaus Resch are 15 points behind the Kiwis and twelve points ahead of the Germans, who in turn go into the final ten points ahead of the fourth-placed Spaniards Diego Botín and Iago Lopez Marra.
Tina Lutz and Susann Beucke, on the other hand, missed out on the final of the best ten 49erFX crews. The coxswain from Holzhausen and her Strander foresailor Susann Beucke finished the main round in an excellent second place. However, this was not enough to make the cut. Lutz/Beucke finish the series in twelfth place overall before the medal race.
At the same time, Paul Kohlhoff and Carolina Werner made it into the final with aplomb. Although the young Nacra 17 crew from Kiel had to make up some ground in the lighter winds on Wednesday and Thursday after their brilliant start and interim lead, they are in a promising fifth place and have every chance of grabbing another pre-Olympic medal in the final with another good result after a total of eleven races and three daily victories. The crew from the Kieler Yacht-Club cannot finish the series any worse than sixth place. That alone is a huge success for the 20-year-old helmsman and his one-year-older fore-sailor. "They have learnt a lot and have a great attitude," praised DSV head coach David Howlett, who also coaches the North German duo on the water.
Olympic fourth-placed Toni Wilhelm did not have this chance at the test regatta in the Olympic area of Rio de Janeiro. However, the RS:X surfer from Dogern turned up the heat at the end of the series, surfing into the final with sixth place in the ninth race and finishing fifth in the medal race. In the end, Wilhelm finished tenth overall, only five points worse than the Dutch Olympic champion Dorian van Rijsselberge, who had to be satisfied with eighth place in Brazil. The pre-Olympic gold medal for the surfers was surprisingly won by China's Aichen Wang ahead of Greece's Byron Kokkalanis and French world champion Pierre Le Coq. Frenchwoman Charline Picon won the RS:X women's competition ahead of Malgozata Bialecka from Poland and Spain's surf star Blanca Manchon.
In the 470, European champions Ferdinand Gerz and Oliver Szymanski, who finished eleventh on Friday, will have to fight in the remaining two races to reach their medal final on Saturday. This also applies to Berliners Annika Bochmann and Marlene Steinherr, who are 13th two races before the 470 women's final.
After his interim low, runner-up Philipp Buhl has fought his way up to ninth place with sixth and third place one day before the medal race of the largest fleet of 38 Lasers. A medal is hardly possible for the man from Sonthofen, but Buhl would like to say goodbye to the Olympic area with a strong result.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
