"It was a struggle for survival," says Klaus Lahme, who coaches 470s and tornados in Athens. "Steffi and Moni fought really well and had their boat under control very well. As the only women's team, they came across the course with almost no problems."
In fact, the pair from Friedrichshafen and Schwerin will remember this race for a long time, which they won by almost a minute. These are worlds. They even caught up with some of the men's teams that started before them. A rarity in such extreme conditions.
The wind reached up to 30 knots. Many teams were simply blown away. For example the Dutch women who took over the leadership from the Germans after the third brand. The former Opti world champion LisWesterhof with the two-time Olympic silver medalist in Europe Ingrid Matthijsse on the bow, who had already won the first race of the day, got stuck in a wave in front of the wind, rolled over and fell back to 17th place.
"Wins in strong winds are always particularly intense," says Lahme. "That's why they both cheered so much at the finish line. That certainly gave them a lot of self-confidence for the next races."
Rothweiler / Leu have moved up to eighth place and could intervene again in the fight for the medal ranks after another good run with Streicher.