470 Mixed World Championship: Showdown in Gdynia - chance of gold for Diesch/Markfort

It's been a brilliant series so far, with only minor dents: Simon Diesch and Anna Markfort start Saturday's medal final of the 470 Mixed World Championship as front runners! Three years after Lusie Wanser and Philipp Autenrieth won the title in Israel, a German mixed duo can once again become world champions. Diesch/Markfort demonstrated their class in the predominantly windy Polish World Championship area of Gdynia, especially in powerful winds.

Friday the 13th: Diesch/Markfort remain strong

Simon Diesch and Anna Markfort (Württembergischer Yacht-Club/Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee/Joersfelder Segel-Club) did not let themselves be distracted from their successful course at the 470 Mixed World Championship on Friday the 13th. The duo finished the Gold Fleet races of the 470 Mixed World Championship strongly with their fourth win of the day and 7th and 8th places overall, even though they lost a few more feathers in the afternoon than they would have liked before the showdown.

With the eleventh and final race of the series completed, the cards for the medal final on Saturday have been dealt. Simon Diesch and Anna Markfort go into the decider as the leaders with 38 net points, two points ahead of the Spanish defending champion Jordi Xammar Hernàndez with Marta Cardona (40 points).

In the evening in the World Championship harbour of Gdynia, a protest by the Spaniards, who had been deducted three points the day before because the helmsman had not turned up for the so-called bip ceremony - the distribution of the bibs for the top three of the day - was still being reopened. According to the regulations, this is penalised with one minus point per race sailed on the day in question.

470 Mixed World Championship: three medals, four contenders

Regardless of the outcome of the protest, the German and Spanish teams will be so close together that the crew that finishes ahead of the other in the medal race will be at the top of the final World Championship standings. That alone is a thriller. But that's not the end of the story.

Just five and twelve points behind Diesch/Markfort, the two British crews Martin Wrigley/Bettine Harris (43 points) and Hannah Bristow/James Taylor 50 points) also kept their title and medal chances alive. This means that the top four will be fighting for gold, silver, bronze - or the wooden medal - at the World Championships. This means that an exclusive duel between the crew from the German Sailing Team and the Spaniards no longer makes sense.

Anna Markfort summarised the situation ahead of the medal final as follows: "Ultimately, the points are close among the top four. Tomorrow, one team will leave the day a little disappointed. We're doing everything we can to make sure it's not us. To do that, we have to concentrate on ourselves, on our own race. We can't focus on a particular team, we have to sail cleanly for ourselves. That's our focus for tomorrow."

Diesch/Markfort fight for World Championship gold

The final will be lighter than on previous days. Anna Markfort said: "The wind forecast for tomorrow includes a new wind direction, a little further east than we've had so far. Also significantly less wind, six to seven knots." Eating, resting and personal hygiene were on the programme for Simon Diesch and Anna Markfort after a tough preliminary day with lots of pumping for the evening before the decision in the 470 Mixed World Championship.

"That's ultimately what we came here for: We want to become world champions." Anna Markfort

The leaders of the national sailing team are looking forward to the final high tension. Anna Markfort said late on Friday afternoon in Gdynia: "We want to win here. The fact that we start tomorrow's MR day as the current leading boat is therefore ideal. We are taking the tension positively and are looking forward to tomorrow's medal race."

470 Mixed World Championship: first final for Dahnke/Melzer

Theres Dahnke and Paco Melzer (Plauer Wassersportverein/Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee, 71 points) also qualified for the final of the 470 Mixed World Championship in eighth place. However, after an outstanding start to the series, they are no longer in contention for a medal.

Theres Dahnke said: "We fought hard. It's also our first medal race as a team. Of course, as always, it will also be important to finish in the top eight for the squad at the World Championships. It would be good to stay at least in eighth place and not slip any further back. We're really looking forward to our first medal race and are really excited to see how it goes. Tomorrow there will be significantly less wind than the whole week. So it will be something completely different, so it won't be boring."

The title fights came to a tough end for Theresa Löffler and Christopher Hoerr (Deutscher Touring Yacht-Club/Segel-Club Breitbrunn-Chiemsee, 83 points). Although the southern German duo were able to work their way back into the top ten on the final day with 4th, 12th and 6th place, they narrowly missed the cut for the medal race by one point in eleventh place.

Angle/Shooter lose race against time

Malte Winkel and Paula Schütze (Schweriner Yacht-Club/Norddeutscher Regatta Verein) experienced two starkly different halves at the 470 Mixed World Championship. In the first half of the World Championships, they had managed two day wins after an early start, but six higher double-digit results in the second half meant that the newly formed crew dropped back to 19th place in the final ranking.

There was a trigger for the conspicuous drop in performance: Winkel/Schütze were in a promising position in the first race of the day on Thursday when they suffered a self-inflicted collision. The 720-degree penalty curl and damage to the hull knocked the duo off course for success. "That threw us off course. What's more, water ran into the front of the tank all day. We repaired the boat overnight and got everything ready again, but our rhythm was gone," reported Malte Winkel.

The helmsman continued: "That left us with two final days in which we invested as much as possible but had to accept that we are not yet where we want to be. Unfortunately, we have lost the race against time for us as a new team this season. Of course, that's going to hurt. But looking to the future, after a well-deserved break, we will finally have a long preparation phase for next season."

470 Mixed World Championship: Final on Saturday

Austria's Olympic champion Lara Vadlau and her new co-sailor Niklas Haberl will also have to watch the final on Saturday as spectators. They finished the 470 Mixed World Championship in 16th place. Click here for the results. The time for the medal final had not yet been set on Friday afternoon, but will be announced in due course. on the Notice Board here still announced.

Click here for the tracking on Saturday for all those who want to follow the action live.