It is the first major Olympic regatt in the post-Olympic year. In all classes, crews stand out who only partly have the names we are used to from Athens. New campaigns that may already be targeting Beijing 2008 are showing their face. For Germany there is some good news on the scene. So that the former youth world champion Wiebke Schröder is in second place in the Laser Radial.
There is also good news for the 470ers sailed by women: of the 25 participating teams, all three German teams are among the top ten. The Berlin duo Stephanie Rothweiler and Vivien Kussatz, who are used to victory, are in first place, Kathrin Kadelbach and SaskiSchröder in eighth place, Sabine Walter and Antje Struckat in tenth place.
It doesn't run that smooth for the men, but here, too, there are new teams on the boats and familiar helmsmen with other crews or vice versa. For example, the former Olympic participant Frank Thieme sails as a bow with the current ISAF youth world champion LydiKoppin. Only in 33rd place out of 45 participants, but still: a new team. Likewise, Morten Bogacki and Christian Lindemann now seem to attack fully in the Olympic class. In 19th place they are ahead of all other German teams. So also in front of Lucas Zellmer, Olympic participant from Athens, who, however, competes with a new bowman (Heiko Seelig), so is virtually camouflaged.
The team Libor / Schoepe / Bahr is also camouflaged, which is now in second place in the kite, but has the letters SUI in the sails, i.e. starts for Switzerland. The first kite with GER in the sail is Markus Wieser's. Yesterday he was still in the lower midfield after a botched start, and today he is seventh.
In the case of the tornadoes, well-established teams start with partly new line-ups. Johannes Polgar from Kiel is sailing with his new bowman Florian Spalteholz (fourth place). Roland Gäbler, who was born in Bremen and lives in Denmark, is still sailing with his Olympic bowman Gunnar Struckmann from Steinhude. The duo is currently in 10th place out of 33 because they have to take an early start (OCS, "on course side") into the ranking.
Not only in the tornado do new teams appear, which last year competed for medals in other classes. So sailing, in the midfield of the Olympic multihulls, Carolijn Brouwer and Sebastien Godefroid recently on a boat. In Athens they were still sitting on their own: Brouwer on a Europe, Godefroid on a Finn. Siren Sundby (21), the Norwegian European world champion with the status of a national heroine, is now trying her hand at the 470. It is also still in the middle of the field.
Results: www.trofeoprincesasofia.org