World Championship 49er and 49erFX: After the calm came the storm of the German crews

What a beautiful sight: After the first three races, which started two and a half days late due to a lull, three German men's teams were in the top five at the 49er and 49erFX World Championships! Tim Fischer and Fabian Graf from Kiel took the lead at the start with three wins in a row. Behind the second-placed Brits James Peters and Fynn Sterritt, Kiel's Justus Schmidt and Max Boehme are in third place in 4th, 3rd and 2nd place individually. Rio bronze medallists Erik Heil and Thomas Plößel also made a strong start to the World Championships in fourth place with 7th, 1st and 2nd after a long break from 49er competition. Helmsman Heil said: "Our speed is okay and we haven't had any trouble so far. We are fast on the downwinds."

The fast-paced Olympic skiff class is heralding a changing of the guard with this World Championship: since 2008, only three crews - Spanish Olympic champions Iker Martinez and Xabi Fernandez, Australian Olympic champions Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen and New Zealand Olympic champions and America's Cup winners Peter Burling and Blair Tuke - have alternated as title holders at 49er World Championships. However, the subscription winners are now sailing in the professional realms of the America's Cup and the Volvo Ocean Race. And so, off the coast of Portugal, it is currently also a question of which "crown princes" can follow the strong sailing top trio of the past onto the world championship throne.

While waiting for the wind, the commentators talk to the athletes. Tina Lutz and Susann Beucke were the first interview partners to talk about their role as favourites and their World Championship ambitions

After a slow start, the World Championships continue at full speed on Thursday: four more qualification races are planned. Four final races will follow on Friday, followed by three more finals and the medal race on Saturday. The future world champions will therefore need a lot of strength and stamina if they want to prevail in the now very compressed series.

The World Championship also began for the 49erFX sailors late on Wednesday afternoon. However, no results were available by 9 pm.

Editor's note (30 August, 9pm): The results of the 49er sailors are likely to change overnight, as the editorial team learnt late in the evening that Fischer/Graf did not win the first race of the day, but finished in 20th place and will lose the lead that was initially officially displayed, as the stripper will only take effect from Thursday. For the time being, this hardly detracts from the overall good performance. "We were sailing fast and could hardly believe it ourselves: in the third race we were almost 100 metres ahead of the next ones," said Tim Fischer.