German Yngling without a medal: Wagner / Höll / Lochbrunner
Wagner / Höll / Lochbrunner without a medal, last places in the Finn and 470, Baur / Groy in the 49er crashed. The fleet of the German Sailing Association is threatened with embarrassment. And there is harsh criticism. Marcus Baur: "A strategic head is missing."
"They were all relaxed and still are," said team boss Jochen Schümann in front of his team after this catastrophic day of racing. Hard to believe in view of the results.
Anyone who thought before this race day that it couldn't get worse was taught better.
The most devastating result from a German point of view was delivered by the Yngling women around Kristin Wagner. The "Bayern Express" ran out of steam. With places eleven and thirteenth, they said goodbye to sixth place overall and have no more chance of getting bronze. "That is particularly disappointing when you were so close to the medal ranks," said Schümann annoyed.
On the other hand, there was great joy in the British camp, who can now celebrate their first gold medal after the Greeks. Shirley Robertson, Sarah Webb and Sarah Ayton are already certain as winners before the last race.
On the unpopular downwind course: Baur / Groy in a 49er
Marcus Baur presented himself not at all relaxed: "It will be difficult to win such a medal", the 49er helmsman analyzed his races visibly eaten. No wonder with places 14 and 16, which dropped him to seventh place. "Our Norwegian training partners (Sundby / Bovim) screwed up both starts," he grumbled. "We could have protested them out." In view of the long partnership, he does not want that: "We now have one good thing with them, if something happens again afterwards, there is no more grace."
With such bad starts, the team could not achieve better results, which was dependent on being ahead at the windward barrel. "Our ship is too soft for winds of eleven knots or more," explains Baur. The hull deforms too much in front of the wind due to the hydrodynamic pressure in the stern area. So they had to optimize the boat for the narrow wind window of up to eleven knots.
Although Baur admits that today's bad results are mainly due to his sailing performance (in addition to the starts of his inadequate wave technology), he assigns part of the blame to the DSV. "If the association would take more care of the interests of the active players, there could be more medals," he said, venting his anger. "We had to sail a completely superfluous qualification. We were absolutely the best team for four years, the national qualification destroyed our advanced training." Baur / Groy had to compete in the SPA regatt in the Dutch Medemblik in order to defend their Olympic nomination against the Kiel brothers Peckolt, who had at least one mathematical chance of nomination thanks to eleventh place at the World Championships (Baur / Groy finished third).
With this elimination, he would not have had enough time to order a new boat from Australia and so had to deal with the old, too soft stool before Athens. Baur calls for consequences: "All talking did not help. As early as October 2003 I asked the Olympic Committee to change the nomination system. I think they would not even remember this conversation today." He considers a team boss like Jochen Schümann to be a permanent fixture and not just a firefighter like at the games to be indispensable. "The association is an obstacle at the moment. We need a strategic mind, a man of stature, a sporting coordinator."
As a target placement before Athens, he sees places three to six as realistic.
Increasing form, but too late? PetrNiemann in Europe
Europe sailor PetrNiemann provided the only bright spot of the day. With places eight and five, she moved up to sixth overall, and with three races still to go, she is 14 points behind third place, but has the advantage that she achieved her worst twelfth place so far in the first race in view of the fluctuating results in the Take the top ten into the rating and still be able to afford one slip.
The 470 women Stefanie Rothweiler and MonikLeu stayed after finishing last (20th) in the first day race and the following 15. in 14th place overall. Lucas Zellmer and Felix Krabbe in the men's category have the same overall place, but were at least eighth and eleventh today.
Michael Fellmann experienced another downward trend after yesterday's total failure (twice 19th). Last (25th) and 21st. He stayed in 17th place overall.
Amelie Lux moved up with two eighth places from 17th to 15th overall among the surfers. Toni Wilhelm is the only one in the German team to show Konstanz. His individual placements: 27, 26, 25, 29. Overall: 28th (of 34).
The winds in front of the Olympic Sailing Center were light to medium and strong. There were long delays in the start.
Tomorrow the 49ers, Europes, Lasers and Mistral surfers will be sailing