Sailing Grand Slam: Power duo Diesch/Markfort take Easter lead with race win

Simon Diesch and Anna Markfort left no doubt about their ambition at the start of the second regatta in the Sailing Grand Slam: The helmsman from the Württembergischer Yacht-Club and his foresailor from the Seglerhaus am Wannsee club took the lead with a fourth place and a race win on day one of the 56th Semaine Olympique Française in the Bay of Hyéres.

After day one: ten frontrunners from nine nations

With 729 male and female sailors, the first day of the French classic in the Sailing Grand Slam showed above all the diversity of the top performers: in ten Olympic disciplines, the front runners after the first races on Easter Monday came from nine different countries. Only Italy was slightly ahead with two top positions in the Nacra 17 and the kite men.

Simon Diesch and Anna Markfort were responsible for the German lightning start of the day, keeping their strongest rivals from Italy and France at bay. The power duo from the German Sailing Team performed confidently. Theresa Löffler and Christopher Hoerr (Deutscher Touring Yacht-Club/Segelclub Breitbrunn Chiemsee) started the series in tenth place overall after two races. Theres Dahnke and Paco Melzer were just two points behind in twelfth place on the evening of the long Easter weekend.

In the 49er, the German crews put the pressure on in the block. Moritz Dorau/Riko Rockenbauch (Württembergischer Yacht-Club), Jakob Meggendorfer/Andreas Spranger (Bayerischer Yacht-Club) and Richard Schultheis/Fabian Rieger (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein/Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee) were in fifth, sixth and seventh place after the first three qualifying races with just seven points each.

Sailing Grand Slam: first race win for Dorau/Rockenbauch

Moritz Dorau and Riko Rockenbauch took the first victory of the day. All three GER-49s had missed out on a top ten place in the first race of the day, but were able to make up a lot of ground in the two subsequent races. "Unfortunately, we were on the wrong side, but then made a good comeback. All the races were complicated today with six to eleven knots because you didn't really know which side would prevail. The wind only came through towards the last race," said Fabian Rieger, describing developments on Easter Monday.

For the coming days, the 2018 World Championship bronze medallist and 2020 European champion expects "certainly not easier conditions with a bit more wind" and the associated test of the crews in clean boat handling. Click here for the YACHT preview of the Semaine Olympique Française. The US team of Nevin Snow and Ian MacDiarmid initially took the lead in the fleet of 67 men's skiffs.

Overall, the German skiff women had a harder time than the men at the start of the series off Hyères. The best GER crew in the 49erFX after three races were Katharina Schwachhofer and Elena Stoltze (Württembergischer Yacht-Club) and Women's America's Cup helmswoman Maru Scheel with Freya Feilcke (Kieler Yacht-Club) in seventh and ninth place.

The battle on the course under land

Sophie Steinlein and Catherine Bartelheimer (Norddeutscher Regatta Verein/Segelclub Inning am Ammersee) came in fourteenth. Olympic sixth-placed Marla Bergmann and Hanna Wille (Mühlenberger Segel-Club) will have to attack on Tuesday in 23rd place. "It was tricky for us too. Our course was directly under land. As soon as you were in a 'pack' of boats, it was very difficult to sail freely and not hold each other up. We are a fleet of 38 boats here, which is also something new that we haven't done for a long time," said Marla Bergmann.

Jannis Maus (Cuxkiters e.V.) and Jan Vöster (Württembergischer Yacht-Club) opened the French regatta of the Sailing Grand Slam after four races in 18th and 20th place with room for improvement. The results for all classes can be found here. The Semaine Olympique Française ends for kiters and surfers on 25 April with the medal decisions. The other six Olympic sailing disciplines will conclude chapter two of the Sailing Grand Slam 2025 with the medal races on 26 April.

The Semaine Olympique is putting its athletes centre stage and showing them in a video series. It starts with two silver medallists from the Olympic regatta in Marseille - Lauriane Nolot from France and Grae Morris from Australia: