Sailing World Championships: German skiff sailors conquer the Bay of Aarhus

Germany's skiff teams are on course for a medal at the World Championships in the Bay of Aarhus. After ten of twelve races up to the final on Saturday, Tim Fischer and Fabian Graf, who live in Kiel, have convincingly taken second place on equal points with the Croatian leaders and Olympic champions Sime and Mihovil Fantela. "We are surprised ourselves," said helmsman Fischer. Berlin's Rio bronze medallists Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel moved up to third place. Both Fischer and Heil start for the Hamburg NRV Olympic Team. Fabian Graf is racing for the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club, Thomas Plößel also for the Norddeutscher Regatta Verein.

While the first world champions were crowned on the seventh day of the World Championships in Aarhus with Hungary's Zsombor Berecz in the Finn Dinghy, France's Kevin Peponnet/Jeremie Mion in the 470 and Japan's Ai Kondo and Miho Yoshida in the women's 470, the German 49er teams also sailed their way to medals. "A lot of good people made mistakes today and that worked in our favour," said 29-year-old Erik Heil. The medical student only started his second Olympic campaign this summer after a break due to his studies with his co-skipper Thomas Plößel and immediately returned to the top of the world rankings. Heil said of his young team-mates Fischer/Graf, who are almost sensationally in the lead: "They have a run that is legendary."

Fischer, who is only 23 years old and had to take several months off after injuring his foot in the spring because he got caught in the loop of his 49er while sailing off Mallorca and his foot is still not fully healed, remained calm and focussed as the front runner: "This is a strong result for Germany so far. But it doesn't change our current objective at the moment: we want to get into the medal race and secure a place on the national team for the 2020 Olympics. And we're looking forward to wearing the yellow jersey tomorrow. Just like the red one today..." Kiel's Justus Schmidt and Max Boehme also contributed to the good result on Thursday, who have now moved up to 14th place after a botched start and are sticking to their goal of taking part in the medal race. Strong winds are forecast for Friday in Aarhus. A depression from Germany is expected to bring them. The organisers are hoping for sailable conditions around midday.

Parallel to the 49ers, Philipp Buhl will be fighting for the bronze medal in the medal final of the laser sailors on Friday. "I'm happy that I was able to earn this opportunity and will fight the whole race to the limit," said the 28-year-old from Sonthofen. In the evening, New Zealander Sam Meech was disqualified from the tenth race of the Laser gold fleet following a jury decision. As a result, Buhl (64 points) moved up to fourth place ahead of the medal final and will now probably have to prepare for a duel for bronze with Great Britain's Elliot Hanson (60 points), who had successfully protested against Meech (now 75 points). "It hurts my soul for Sam," said Buhl, who is friends with Meech, although he benefited indirectly from the decision. Leading Cypriot Pavlos Kontides (41 points) and Australian Matthew Wearn (45 points) will battle it out for gold.

At the end of the Gold Fleet races, the otherwise strong German 49erFX sailors bid farewell to the World Championship in an unfortunate and sometimes helpless manner. Although the vice European champions Vicky Jurczok and Anika Lorenz from the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club were able to improve by 13 positions (!) to 16th place on the last day with significantly better results, this is not a result with which the world number four is satisfied. The Berliners were unable to cope with the difficult Danish course. Neither did Tina Lutz (Chiemsee Yacht Club) and Susann Beucke (Hannoverscher Yacht-Club), who finished 26th, far below their potential. "We are almost stunned," said Sanni Beucke from Strande, "we even had good starts, but no matter where we sailed - it wasn't the right way." Over the last two days, the Austrians Tanja Frank and Lorena Abicht, who continue to lead the women's fast planing dinghy classification, increasingly found the right way. The Nacra 17 bronze medallist from Rio and her foresailor will start the medal final after the rest day for the skiff sailors on Saturday as front runners with an 11-point lead. Frank's recipe for success: "Don't think too much, keep everything simple in the complicated wind conditions and just sail."