Sailing World Championship: Attacking in Aarhus: Buhl maintains medal chances

Unusually angry, Philipp Buhl trudged up the ramp in Bootspark 3 in the Aarhus Ø harbour district with his Laser on Tuesday - his gaze almost sombre, his familiar smile nowhere to be seen despite his good performance. Little by little, he explained the reason for his annoyance. He had sailed an almost brilliant race 7, added a valuable second place to his World Championship account and had already secured a formidable starting position for race 8 of the Laser Gold Fleet, when suddenly a sailor from Montenegro tacked in front of his bow. Germany's best Laser sailor was no longer able to start from the front row as planned and had to roll up the field from behind. He did this in a rousing manner, turning 31st position at the first turning mark into 16th place at the finish, but Buhl would have imagined things differently for his summit assault. However, even a protest that looked promising in view of the live pictures would not have given him back the places he had lost. That's the way it is in sailing. "I can protest him out and I'm thinking about doing it so that he has more respect next time, but unfortunately it won't do me any good," explained Buhl.

Buhl's interim assessment on Tuesday evening was nevertheless positive: "It was a long, hard day out there in the light winds. It's not easy to maintain full concentration for seven hours in the heat. I did well in the first race. In the second, at least I caught up very well. I probably won't be the front runner going into the medal final, but a place in the top three would be important. Then anything is still possible."

The laser races with Philipp Buhl will be shown in the replay of the live broadcast from day 6 of the Sailing World Championships

With his performance, the world number two moved up to sixth place in the largest World Championship fleet of 165 boats before the last two races up to the final. 18 points separate him from the Australian leader Matthew Wearn (23 points). Buhl still has two races left on Wednesday to get himself into a good starting position for the double medal race on Friday and realise his big dream. The sports soldier, who has already won World Championship bronze (2013) and World Championship silver (2015) in his career, made no secret of this before the start of the World Championships: "I'm longing for the title." National coach Alex Schonski explained what his protégé has to do to achieve this on Wednesday: "Philipp sailed strongly today. He really did! He has to continue in exactly the same way on Wednesday and reduce the points up front as much as possible. That means two top races. He has what it takes. And then everything is possible in the final."

Finn helmsman Phillip Kasüske from Berlin, on the other hand, lost a lot of ground on Tuesday and forfeited his top ten position. The Berliner from the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club dropped back to 18th place with 35th and 30th place and would now have to sail outstandingly in the remaining two races until the Finn fleet's medal final on Thursday in order to make it into the top eight nations and secure the German national starting place for the 2020 Olympic Games at this early stage.

Kiel's Nacra 17 helmsman Paul Kohlhoff and his foresailor Alica Stuhlemmer also dropped back to 22nd place in the little-loved light and shifty winds, finishing 19th, 11th, 16th and 33rd. "We had bad starts, and in the fourth race of the day the tiller boom broke again when I went for a swim," said Paul Kohlhoff, who refused to let his life-threatening operation last December and the long recovery period be used as an excuse. "I'm unhappy and hope that we can improve our starts and our boat speed from Thursday." The mixed catamaran teams, who were the last class to start the World Championships, will then enter the main round. Johannes Polgar and Carolina Werner are in 30th place after seven races so far, four (!) of which were held on Tuesday.

For Germany's high-level 49er crews, the main round begins on Wednesday after yesterday's rest day. Tim Fischer/Fabian Graf (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein/Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee) and the Rio bronze medallists Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein) will start in third and ninth place respectively with good prospects of joining the gold fleet of the best 29 World Championship crews. Kiel's Justus Schmidt/Max Boehme have also set themselves the "realistic goal" of reaching the medal final in 25th place despite a botched start ("That was more than a shot across the bow!").

Click here for the interim results.