Olympia: Mouse ninth at the World Championships, Sunday medals for the best skiffs?

Formula kiter Jannis Maus has been a household name in Olympic sailing since 2024 at the latest. Finishing fifth at the Olympics, the Oldenburg native was the most successful member of the national sailing team alongside kite team-mate Leonie Meyer in the bay of Marseille. The doctoral student in renewable energies then focussed on his studies before returning to competitive sport. He has come a long way in the meantime.

Formula Kite World Championship: small mistake, no medal

The 29-year-old fought his way to ninth place at the Formula Kiteboarding World Championships in Viana do Castelo in northern Portugal this weekend. He would have preferred to go further than the quarter-finals, but after a consistent week of top ten results, a mistake on the first cross of the minute-long knockout race cost him his ticket to the semi-finals.

Maus had started the race upwind after the wind shifted to the right shortly before the start signal. He later explained: "I thought at the start: you take the right-hander with you, go for a long starboard bow. But that didn't pay off. The early turn out was wrong. Outside, the wind was on the left again, so I got hit on the nose twice."

He was then able to make up another place, finishing in fourth place in the quarter-finals - the end for the likeable fighter at this point resulted in ninth place in the final world championship classification. The 19-year-old kite dominator Max Maeder from Singapore was crowned champion for the third time. His even younger Swiss training colleague Gian Stragiotti, aged 18, won his first World Championship medal with silver. Maeder and Stragiotti jumped into the Atlantic waters together after their finishes and cheered exuberantly. The Austrian Olympic champion Valentin Bontus won bronze at the World Championships.

Rising star Jan Vöster: a rough landing in the silver fleet

Despite the quarter-final damper, Jannis Maus, the best Formula kiter from the German Sailing Team in the World Championship area, was positive after the final, saying: "My summary is basically good. I can be very, very satisfied with the results I achieved on the penultimate day. In the races, everything from 3rd to 10th place was possible. I actually finished in the top ten every day."

Jannis Maus sees two sides to the Olympic kiteboarding world championship final format: "It's very punishing if you make a small mistake. It's merciless, but of course also exciting for the spectators." Jan Vöster had to put up with a low blow in Portugal. The young up-and-coming kiteboarder from the Württemberg Yacht Club, who had already raced into the semi-finals at this year's top-ranked season opener off Mallorca, ended up in the silver fleet at the World Championships.

This was triggered by a botched first day at the World Championships. Later there was a protest decision in favour of an opponent, as a result of which the 22-year-old Vöster lost the 25th place he had already achieved on the water, which would have entitled him to enter the gold fleet at the end of the main round, to the protest winner by a tenth of a point at the green table. Eighth place in the silver fleet (33rd place at the World Championships) hurt. Vöster said: "It's more down to my mindset than my skiing ability. My coach and the others know what potential I have. Now it's about making this potential even more accessible to me under pressure."

Schultheis/Rieger: first soaring, then crashing in just one day

This is not the first time Dom Tidey has experienced a setback for a young and aspiring athlete, he said: "Sometimes in high performance sport, young athletes take two steps forward and one step back. Experience will make him stronger. He is young and has a lot of potential." The 49er helmsman Richard Schultheis (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein), who is only 21 years old, also had to come to terms with this realisation on Saturday.

For a week, Schultheis and his co-skipper Fabian Rieger (Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee) had made their ambitions clear at the Skiff World Championship for 49er (men) and 49erFX (women). They had moved up to third place on Friday. They had also conjured up a race win on the course. Then came the disastrous final day, on which they plummeted twelve positions to 15th place in the wobbly wind chess in the very capricious terrain, finishing 21st, 18th and 24th - the dream of taking part in the final and fighting for a world championship medal was over.

Richard Schultheis took stock realistically: "Today was a very difficult day on the water, where you could lose places very quickly. Of course we are very disappointed that we missed out on the final of the top 10. On the other hand, we know what we are capable of. However, we didn't manage to put all the pieces together on the track today. The event got off to a difficult start for us as first myself and then Fabi were struggling with severe nausea. So for now, we're happy that we managed to hold on for so long and put in solid performances on the first four days of racing."

The last day didn't go our way, but the season continues." Richard Schultheis

Things went differently for team-mates Jakob Meggendorfer and Andreas Spranger. Plagued by injury last year, the crew from the Bayerischer Yacht-Club seem to be fit as a fiddle. In the skiff sailors' final format, which has been changed again, they will start from third position on Sunday. The new format ensures that the top teams for the final are extremely close together thanks to a points compression of the main round results actually achieved.

Three world championship medal chances in the 49er and 49erFX

The scenario from the perspective of Meggendorfer/Spranger before the 49er final on 17 May from 1.15 pm: They have three points to make up on Seb Menzies/George Lee Rush (New Zealand) for World Championship gold. For silver it would only be one point to Harry Price/Max Paul (Australia). The Austrians Kaenu Prettner/Jakob Flachberger and the Dutch world champions Bart Lambriex van Aanholt/Floris van de Werken are only three points behind the Germans. Click here for the 49er intermediate results before the Sunday final of the top ten crews.

The 49erFX women will be similarly exciting beforehand from 11.15 a.m. get down to business. In fifth and sixth place are both Hamburg Olympic sixth-placed Marla Bergmann/Hanna Wille (Mühlenberger Segler-Club, 39 points) as well as the Women's America's Cup helmswoman Maru Scheel and Freya Feilcke (Kieler Yacht-Club, 40 points) with medal chances in the final. Marla Bergmann said: "We are confident and will give everything for the medal. The points are still close at the front and back. So it's all in and two consistently good races!"

The medals are within reach and we are stretching out our arms." Maru Scheel

Not even the dominant Spaniards Paula Barceló/Maria Cantero (29 points) are unassailable. Especially not France's Manon Peyre/Amélie Riou (38 points), Belgium's Isaura Maenhaut/Anouk Geurts (38 points) or Norway's Pia Dahl and Nora Edland, who are level on points with Bergmann/Wille. Good nerves will be one of the most important weapons in this World Championship thriller on Sunday.

Replay! The broadcast of the Formula kiters' medal series at their World Championships in Viana do Castelo:

Live on Sunday, 17 May 2026: The medal finals at the World Championship for 49er, 49erFX and Nacra 17 in the Bay of Quiberon: