Germany's 470 fleet is on course for the 2016 Olympic Games off Rio de Janeiro. At the World Championship off Haifa, Ferdinand Gerz from Munich and his Berlin co-sailor Oliver Szymanski secured Germany's place in the Olympic Games in their discipline with ninth place. In the women's event, Berlin-based Annika Bochmann and Marlene Steinherr from the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club also achieved the same with eighth place. For both crews, however, this success is not yet synonymous with personal Olympic tickets.
The results in the current three-part national Olympic qualification, the second regatta of which was the World Championships in Israel, will decide the allocation of individual Olympic tickets. Gerz/Szymanski and Bochmann/Steinherr were able to extend their respective leads in the men's and women's races respectively. If their national rivals were to improve their performance at the same time, both would have to make a dramatic collapse at the last qualifying regatta next year at the European Championships off Mallorca to miss out on the Olympic ticket that is already within their grasp. Gerz/Szymanski are 24 points ahead of Wagner/Baldewein (13 points) in the national elimination with 37 points collected. Annika Bochmann/Marlene Steinherr are clearly ahead of Nadine Böhm and Ann-Christin Goliass (12 points) in the women's competition with a total of 28 points. The final decision on the allocation of Olympic tickets will be made at the 470 European Championships in spring 2016.
Impressions from the 470 World Championship in the Bay of Haifa
Ferdinand Gerz said in Haifa: "In addition to the good result after exciting and exhausting days, we have also secured the national ticket for Germany and further extended our lead in the national Olympic elimination. We have thus achieved our goals for the World Championships!" Jasper Wagner and Dustin Baldewein finished 15th at the World Championships.
The world champions in Israel were Australian Olympic champion Mathew Belcher and his co-sailor Will Ryan, ahead of Croatia's Sime Fantela/Igor Marenic and Russia's Pavel Sozykin/Denis Gribanov. The 2014 world champions also managed to defend their title in the women's event: Austria's high-flyers Lara Vadlau and Jolanta Ogar defied injuries and a flu in their foresailor and relegated the strong Brits Hannah Mills and Saskia Clark to second place. Camille Lecointre and Helene Defranche secured bronze in the Olympic double-handed dinghy.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
