Three golds for Team GBR

While the home nation also wins three at the finale for the Olympic classes racing at Kiel Week

Hundreds of spectators in front of the video screen at the Audi Arena in Schilksee plus thousands more via the internet were able to watch today's Kieler Wocher medal races live, for the 2.4mR Paralympic class and eight Olympic classes. Team GBR claimed three golds while Germany got also three and Spain, Austria and Finland gained one apiece.

Philipp Buhl managed to defend his title in the Laser ahead of two-time Olympic Laser gold medallist Robert Scheidt and Swede Jesper Staelheim.

In the 49er, Nico Delle Karth/Nikolaus Resch (AUT) stayed in charge to win the race. With a capsize in the first of three Medal Races, Eric Heil/Thomas Ploessel had only a theoretical chance, won the second race on the Kiel TV broadcasting course, acknowledged by the spectators with applause. But it did not help. With a victory in the last race, Delle Karth/Resch demonstrated, who is number one at this year's Kiel Week. Pavle Kostov/Petar Cupac were on rank three.

After Heiko Kroeger in the 2.4mR, Tina Lutz/Susann Beucke won the second gold medal for Germany, after two of the three medal races in the 49erFX. After their success at the EUROSAF event recently in Medemblik, this was their second coup, with the Australian crews Olivia Price/Caitlin Elks und Tessa Parkinson/ Chelsea Hall filling in the rest of the podium.

In the Nacra 17, three-time 49er World Champion Iker Martinez with his crew Tara Pacheco came out on top. They overtook Australians Jason Waterhouse/Lisa Darmanin to silver with bronze going to the Austrian team of Thomas Zajac/Tanja Chiara Frank.

Mark Andrews (Great Britain) and Dennis Karpak (Estonia) and Piotr Kula (Poland) formed the podium in the Finn, while the 470 was also dominated by British sailors.

The 27-year-old Andrews, who entered the Kiel regatta of the back of two gold medals from the Delta Lloyd Regatta in Holland and Sail for Gold at Weymouth and Portland, led the charge for the British Sailing Team from the word go posting eight race wins across the five day regatta, including a win in today’s medal race decider. Teammate Andrew Mills finished fifth.

“It feels pretty good to win here in Kiel and to pick up my third gold medal in a row,” enthused the Largs sailor. “We have had good breeze all week with 10-20 knots. It’s been quite shifty which has meant the fleet has been up and down all week so it has been really good to keep consistent and to be in the top three all but one race. The key has definitely been my boat speed, I have been sailing really quick which is nice to see.”

Andrews continued: “Today’s final medal race was the windiest day of the regatta and I would always back myself in the breeze. It was quite shifty though and a very short course, so quite tough but I was happy to cap of the regatta with a win and the gold medal.”

With Andrews picking up his first ever senior podium finish at the Dutch leg of the EUROSAF Champions Sailing Cup in May, the Finn sailor admits that the boost in confidence you get from winning regattas has been a fundamental factor in his recent run of success.

“I think that has been the key really over the past few regattas, you win won or two events and your confidence is sky high, you’re going quick in the boat and you don’t necessarily take notice of the other sailors as you’re happy knowing that you’re fast and therefore you start to believe in yourself. You start to concentrate on the sailing rather than watching everyone else and start extending at the front – it’s then pretty easy from there on in really!”

Andrews concluded: “I’m definitely getting better and better as the year goes on and it’s nice to be peaking just time in time for the two key events of the year - the Europeans and Worlds. There have been a few people missing from the events so I wouldn’t count my chickens too much at the moment, but you can only beat the people who turn up to the regattas and to win three golds in a row is pretty good.”

Here Luke Patience/Joe Glanfiled triumphed over their fellow countrymen Nick Rogers/Elliot Willis and Austrians Matthias Schmidt/Florian Reichstaedter.

On his first gold medal of the year, Patience said: “I have had quite a fair few strings of silver medals in the last wee while so it’s nice to break that cycle and win an event – we’re really happy!

“Joe and I have done four events together now and have won three medals out of four so I think we are just really pleased with how our sailing is going at the minute and where we are at.

“Obviously Joe has been out of the boat for four years so what we will have at the Worlds won’t be our finished product as it’s still only the first year of the cycle. We are doing all we can to be the best we can be in time for the Worlds and I think that being able to sail at the front of the fleet like we have done this week and this year so far fills us with confidence that we are able to go and do that again in La Rochelle,” the 26-year-old Helensburgh helmsman explained.

“We are happy were we are, happy with the progress we are making and the work that we have got to do between now and the Worlds to give ourselves the best chance. It is early days and just to be even able to challenge for medals is such a cool thing in such a short time together. We will be doing everything we can so that we peak like we did this week at the Worlds.”

Patience and his Exmouth-based crew Glanfield didn’t have the dream start to the regatta that they would have liked, picking up a black flag disqualification and a 23rd on day one, however with Patience admitting the duo were still confident of winning the regatta.

“We always are confident. The thing is with this sport is that ultimately it is very difficult to reach perfection in all that you do and not even the very best reach it. On a day like that [Saturday] when it goes badly, we know that from there onwards other people will make mistakes and we just need to keep plugging away and to not let it affect us too much and for us to do the right things at the right time. These regattas are marathons and medals aren’t won on day one which we proved!”

The third gold medal for Great Britain in Kiel was won by the 470 Women. Sophie Weguelin/Eilidh McIntyre ensured victory by winning the Medal Race, leaving them on the same point score as the Dutch team of Kyranakou/Anneloes van Veen who claimed siliver with the Austrian team of Lara Vadlau/Jolanta Ogar in bronze.

Weguelin explained: “Given the conditions today we were confident heading into today’s final race even though we were entering in fourth. We know we are fast when it’s a bit breezy and our downwind boat speed is also quite good which was crucial on the last run.”

“It was just the two boats at the top of the fleet, us and the Germans who were leading round the first lap and half and on the last run we managed to get past her. We sort of said to ourselves – we are still in with a shout here so let’s just give it all we have got for the last run - and it paid off which we are over the moon about!”

“We have had an amazing six months and it’s just great to keep the momentum going – hopefully we can carry it on into the Worlds,” said the 24-year-old from Lymington.

Tuula Tenkanen from Finland claimed victory in the Radial following her five bullets in the fleet races. Three-times Kiel Week winner Paige Railey (USA) won silver, followed by Joselfin Olsson from Sweden.

Results:

2.4mR: (14) 1. Heiko KRÖGER (Ammersbek,1(3)1/1/1/1/1/1/2/1/1/1/1/1) Punkte 14; 2. Barend KOL (NED,2/1/5/2/3/6(8)5/8/4/2/2/4/2) 46; 3. Lasse KLÖTZING (Berlin,5(8)4/3/5/3/4/2/1/6/4/3/3/8)51; 4. Per AHRBOM (SWE,4/6/3/4/2/7/5(10)4/2/5/8/2/3)55; 5. Kevin CANTIN (FRA ,3/2/6/5/4/9(14)7/5/7/6/6/6/4)70; 6. Henrik Johnsson (SWE,(24)5/2/6/6/5/2/3/10/3/3/4/24/24)97

49er: (Medal Race) 1. Nico Luca Marc DELLE KARTH / Nikolaus Leopold RESCH (AUT,3/2/3/1) Punkte 9; 2. Erik HEIL / Thomas PLÖßEL (Kiel,6/8/1/2)17; 3. Pavle KOSTOV / Petar CUPAC (CRO,9/7/2/4)22; 4. Will PHILLIPS / Rhys MARA (AUS,12/1/8/5)26; 5. Justus SCHMIDT / Max BOEHME (Kiel,15/5/4/8)32; 6. Lukasz PRZYBYTEK / Pawel KOLODZINSKI (POL,21/3/5/7)36; 7. Ryan SEATON / Matthew MCGOVERN (IRL,18/6/6/6)36; 8. Carl P SYLVAN / Otto HAMEL (SWE,24/4/7/3)38

49er FX: (Medal Race) 1. Tina LUTZ / Susann BEUCKE (Bergen,6/1/2/2) Punkte 11; 2. Olivia PRICE / Caitlin ELKS (AUS,12/7/3/1)23; 3. Tessa PARKINSON / Chelsea HALL (AUS,9/5/4/8)26; 4. Victoria JURCZOK / Anika LORENZ (Kiel,3/8/8/7)26; 5. Haylee OUTTERIDGE / Nina CURTIS (AUS,18/2/1/6)27; 6. Leonie MEYER / Hahlbrock Maren (Kiel,15/3/6/3)27; 7. Maria CANTERO / Ana HERNANDEZ (ESP,21/4/5/4)34; 8. Jule GÖRGE / Lotta GÖRGE (Kiel,24/6/7/5)42

Nacra 17: (Medal Race) 1. Iker MARTINEZ / Tara PACHECO (ESP,2/1) Punkte 3; 2. Jason WATERHOUSE / Lisa DARMANIN (AUS,1/2)3; 3. Thomas ZAJAC / Tanja Chiara FRANK (AUT,3/4)7; 4. Tim SHUWALOW / Hanna KLINGA (SWE,6/3)9; 5. Matias BÜHLER / Brugger Nathalie (ESP,5/5)10; 6. Gemma JONES / Jason SAUNDERS (NZL,4/6)10

Finn: (Medal Race) 1. Andrews Mark (GBR,1/1) Punkte 2; 2. Deniss KARPAK (EST,3/3)6; 3. Piotr KULA (POL,2/4)6; 4. Tomas VIKA (CZE,6/2)8; 5. Andrew MILLS (GBR,4/5)9; 6. Greg DOUGLAS (CAN,5/6)11

470 M: (Medal Race) 1. Luke PATIENCE / Joe GLANFIELD (GBR,1/2) Punkte 3; 2. Nick ROGERS / Elliot WILLIS (GBR,4/1)5; 3. Matthias SCHMID / Florian REICHSTÄDTER (AUT,3/3)6; 4. Anton DAHLBERG / Fredrik BERGSTRÖM (SWE,2/4)6; 5. Liangdao WENG / Qiaowen LIN (CHN,5/5)10; 6. Hugo FEYDIT / Charlie AGENAU (FRA,6/6)12

470 W: (Medal Race) 1. Sophie WEGUELIN / Eilidh MCINTYRE (GBR,4/1) Punkte 5; 2. Afrodite KYRANAKOU / Anneloes van VEEN (NED,2/3)5; 3. Lara VADLAU / Jolanta OGAR (AUT,1/4)5; 4. Annina WAGNER / Elisabeth PANUSCHKA (GER,6/2)8; 5. Agnieszka SKRZYPULEC / Natalia WOJCIK (POL,3/6)9; 6. Anna BURNET / Flora STEWART (GBR,5/5)10

Laser Standard: (Medal Race) 1. Philipp BUHL (Sonthofen,3/1) Punkte 4; 2. Robert SCHEIDT (BRA,2/2)4; 3. Jesper STÅLHEIM (DEN,1/5)6; 4. Ashley James BRUNNING (AUS,4/3)7; 5. Karl-Martin RAMMO (EST,5/4)9; 6. Bruno FONTES (BRA,6/6)12

Laser Radial: (Medal Race) 1. Tuula TENKANEN (FIN,1/1) Punkte 2; 2. Paige RAILEY (USA,2/3)5; 3. Josefin OLSSON (SWE,5/2)7; 4. Drozdovskaya Tatiana (BLR,4/4)8; 5. Franziska GOLTZ (Kiel,3/6)9; 6. Viktorija ANDRULYTE (LTU,6/5)11