He will start the medal race at 11.13 am, just one point behind the leading Norwegian Hermann Tomasgaard: Philipp Buhl will be battling for Laser gold at the World Cup final off Marseille on Sunday. While some Olympic disciplines at the annual highlight of the World Cup series are rather weakly staffed or not held at all due to clashes with other European and global title events, only a few aces are missing in the largest Olympic single-handed dinghy in France. After ten races, the Norwegian Tomasgaard, Buhl, double world champion Nick Thompson from Great Britain and his compatriot Elliot Hanson have formed a four-way battle for victory, separated by a total of just eight points.
Buhl's coach Alexander Schlonski says: "Philipp had a strong series in Marseille and put in a great performance. Now he has a great opportunity to make something of it." The 28-year-old active spokesman for the German Sailing Team has no less in mind for the final of the best ten laser sailors on Sunday. The runner-up world champion competing for the Alpsee-Immenstadt Sailing Club, who is also preparing for his Kiel Week start and the medal hunt at the World Championship of all Olympic disciplines in Aarhus in August by taking part in the World Cup final, said on Saturday evening: "I'm in the game, winning remains the goal." Buhl is expecting light and difficult winds for the final of the top ten laser sailors.
WINKEL/CIPRA ALSO ON COURSE FOR MEDALS
In addition to Buhl, the two leading German 470 men's teams will also be competing for the German Sailing Team in this World Cup final. One crew was able to put in an outstanding performance: Malte Winkel and Matti Cipra will start the final on Sunday in third place with a good chance of winning a medal. In ten races, the crew from the Schwerin Yacht Club and the Plauer Wassersport Verein were able to beat Olympic champion Mathew Belcher and his co-skipper Will Ryan three times. Before the Shwodown, Winkel/Cipra have 13 points to make up on the Australians and six points on the second-placed Spaniards Jordi Xammar Hernandez and Nicolás Rodríguez García-Paz. Hippolyte Machetti and Sidoine Dantes, who are in fourth place behind them, or Japan's Keiju Okada/Jumpei Hokazono, who are level on points with the Frenchmen, would have to make up at least eight points to oust the northern Germans from the podium. Malte Winkel said: "Of course you want to maintain the position you've achieved. But it's like in football: it's not easy to manage a 1-0 win. Everything is still possible, both upwards and downwards." Simon Diesch and Philipp Autenrieth missed out on a place in the final, finishing fifteenth overall.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
