470 Mixed World Championship: Diesch/Markfort in Sunday's final - World Championship medal possible

Two years after the World Championship gold for Luise Wanser and Philipp Autenrieth, a German 470 mixed crew can once again win a World Championship medal on Sunday. Simon Diesch and Anna Markfort, who have been so strong this week, had to make up some ground on the final day, finishing 15th and 17th respectively. Nevertheless, the helmsman from the Württembergischer Yacht-Club and his foresailor from the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club have an exciting prospect of reaching the medal final of the top ten in fourth place.

Spanish favourites, German medal hopes

While Diesch/Markfort (75 points) can no longer catch up with the leading Spaniards Jordi Xammar and Nora Brugman (56 points) in the double medal race after a brilliantly contested fifth World Championship day, World Championship silver and bronze remain within reach for the "Bodensee-Berlin-Express". Ahead of Diesch/Markfort are Great Britain's Vita Heathcote/Chris Grube (67 points) and Japan's Keiju Okada/Miho Yoshioka (72 points) in second and third place. But behind the German duo with the sail number GER 11, there are still a number of crews fighting to climb up the rankings.

The medal race of the 470 Mixed World Championship is scheduled for 1 p.m. on 3 March. "I'm pretty sure that we can achieve a medal in terms of ability. Even with the forecast for tomorrow. The wind is supposed to come from the right and pick up a bit more. We have nothing to lose, but everything to gain. Of course, the points are also super tight at the back. I think you have to take a bit more risk tomorrow."

We are looking forward to one last great race" (Anna Markfort)

Simon Diesch and Anna Markfort are preparing intensively for the last and toughest World Championship stage. "We are looking at the points again in detail. What exactly it means and how many points or what gap we need to which team. I think we'll then be well prepared. We're looking forward to one last great race tomorrow," said Anna Markfort in the evening in S'Arenal.

Difficult day with new wind direction and more waves

The fact that 15th and 17th place on the final day cost their crew a chance at the title after their outstanding performance on Saturday should have no influence on the final. On Saturday, things did not go perfectly for Simon Diesch and Anna Markfort in conditions that had changed again despite fresh winds. "Today was a more difficult day for us. We had a new wind direction, more waves," explained Anna Markfort on Saturday evening.

The 30-year-old continued: "We had slightly underestimated the left-hand side in the first race. That the course was so close to land after all. The fact that the landfall was so strong on the left-hand side. We couldn't utilise our speed on the right-hand side. It didn't help that we drove to the right there."

Things initially went better in the second race. Simon Diesch and Markfort reached the windward mark well inside the top ten. "But then we struggled a bit with positioning on the half-wind course. The chasers came racing up and overtook us on the downwind right and left - which is actually not typical for us. For tomorrow, we need to remember the feeling from yesterday." This refers to the two dominant race victories that the German duo shone so brightly with on Friday.

DSV coach Steve Lovegrove was optimistic ahead of the final: "A medal is certainly possible. That remains the focus for the team. The competition is tough and the team will have to be the best version of themselves to achieve this goal. They definitely have the ability to do it."

A live broadcast of the medal race is not planned, but those who want to follow the decisions can do so on 3 March from 1 pm via Live tracking here do.

For all other crews from the German Sailing Team, the 470 Mixed World Championship came to an end on Saturday. No other team was able to qualify for the final. The remarkable final sprints by Malte and Anastasiya Winkel (Schweriner Yacht-Club/Norddeutscher Regatta Verein) with their race win in the eleventh and final race and by Luise Wanser/Philipp Autenrieth (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein/Bayerischer Yacht-Club) with third place in the last race came too late.

The German final sprints came too late

The Winkel sailing couple had previously robbed themselves of a tangible chance of reaching the final with a premature start in race ten. Luise Wanser and Philipp Autenrieth had suffered too many heavyweight double-digit results in the course of the World Championship to catapult themselves into the top ten with the successful last race. The Winkels finished 12th in the final World Championship standings and Wanser/Autenrieth 13th, earning nine and eight points respectively for the national elimination account in the battle for just one 470 Olympic ticket at the first of three elimination regattas.

Theres Dahnke and Matti Cipra (Plauer Wassersportverein) also scored points for the elimination, earning four points with 17th place in the World Championships. Theresa Löffler and Christopher Hoerr (Deutscher Touring Yacht-Club/Segelclub Breitbrunn Chiemsee) scored three points in 18th place.

Regardless of the outcome of the medal race on Sunday, Simon Diesch and Anna Markfort will lead the national Olympic elimination after the World Championships and before the Spanish classic Trofeo Princesa Sofía in April and the European Championships in Cannes in May. Their performance in the final will determine how big their points cushion will be.

Diesch/Markfort lead the Olympic qualifiers

Malte Winkel was already taking stock in Mallorca: "It was a very nice finish today! The fact that we were able to win the last race gave us confidence and showed that we can deliver in these conditions. The early start today was just super, super annoying. We were already at the top of the field and just didn't do it well. All in all, we've made too many gross, sometimes avoidable mistakes this week and, from our point of view, are rightly not in the top ten. So you also have to look at it from the other perspective: Under these circumstances, we are happy to have started the elimination round as the second-best team."

Malte Winkel was already looking ahead to the two remaining elimination regattas: "The fact that we were able to collect nine points is a positive thing. But of course we are very disappointed not to have made it into the top ten. We simply weren't ready yet. We were still missing a few things. We will try to prepare ourselves as well as possible for the next two competitions and work on these mistakes. Then we'll see how things go at the second regatta. There's still a long way to go..."

A look back at the fourth day of the World Championships (Friday), on which Simon Diesch and Anna Markfort had delivered such great cinema with two race wins before they had to give up a few feathers in the battle for the World Championship medals on Saturday: