Brazilian medal glamour at the Kiel Week

by SVG Verlag on 14 Jun 2017 Brazilian medal glamour at the Kiel Week: Medal winners from Rio de Janeiro in the 49er 49er-FX, 470, Laser Radial and Nacra 17 will let Kiel shine in gold, silver and bronze.

In the 49er, Brazilian sailing legend Robert Scheidt (five Olympic medals) will also join the fleet. Two gold and one silver medal winner from the Paralympics in Rio have registered for the Para World Championships (PWSC). And 80 active sailors in total, from 40 nations from all continents in the participants' list of the PWSC are making clear, how important the Kiel Week is (17. until 25. June).

'It is a balance act between the active mass sports with the Aalregatta and the Olympic high-performance sports to enable as many sailors as possible to participate at the Kiel Week', states the Head of Organisation of the Kiel Week regattas, Dirk Ramhorst, looking at the upcoming start of the 135. Kiel Week at the press conference in the Kiel Yacht Club.

And one of the starting signals will be given by the highest representative of German sports, the DOSB President Alfons Hoermann. Hoermann will be accompanied by the Chairman of the Conference of Sports Ministers, Klaus Bouillon (Ministry for the Interiors and Sport of the region Saarland in Germany), and will be giving the starting signal for the public fun race 'Aalregatta' on Saturday. Also part of the top-class visitors at the Kiel Week will be the World Sailing President Kim Andersen, who will be opening the Para Worlds on Wednesday.

12mR yachts, marine cutters and classic regattas close to the inner city shoreline in Kiel, the DJI Speed Challenge for speed enthusiasts, active sailors in 50 disciplines, who will be starting more than 400 times, and the integration of a match day of the 1. National German Sailing League 'Bundesliga', the tall ship parade and the Super Sunday with the medal races of the Olympic classes - the Kiel Week offers the whole spectrum in its 135. year, organised by the Kiel Yacht Club KYC together with the Hamburg Sailing Club HSC, the Norddeutscher Regatta-Verein NRV and the Verein Seglerhaus am Wannsee VSaW. The Kiel Week is being supported by the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein, the premium partners Audi and HSH Nordbank as well as boot Duesseldorf and numerous sponsors.

EM-pre-match for 49er, 49er-FX and Nacra 17
The Kiel Week is the traditional playground of the German National Team, which will be showing up in almost complete numbers as the German Sailing Team in eight of the ten Olympic disciplines (only the surfers will not be sailing at the Kiel Week). The pulling effect of the European Championships (27. July until 4. August) in Kiel-Schilksee causes strong fleets especially in the 49er and 49er-FX. Also the Nacra 17 class, which will be sailed as a full-foiler for the Europeans, but still with C-foils for the Kiel Week, is showing up with a good fleet.

The German 49er-FX Olympic participants from 2016, Victoria Jurczok/Anika Lorenz, will be meeting strong international competitors in Kiel. The silver medal winners from Rio, Alex Maloney/Molly Meech (Australia), Annemiek Bekkering/AnetteDuetz (NED), who became sevenths in Rio, as well as the eighth from Rio, Sophie Ainsworth (GBR), with her new helmswoman Kate Macgregor, are all real top teams coming to Kiel.

In the 49er class, the America's Cup, that is taking place at the same time, is taking its toll on the starting lists. But other top-class sailors will be coming to Kiel with their Olympic skiff: One of them is Robert Scheidt. The five-time Olympic medal winner is now starting his next campaign in his third Olympic boat after his successes in the Laser and the Star. The 44-year old Brazilian sailor likes to start in Kiel and does it frequently.

He already collected Kiel Week victories in the previous millennium. The eighth at the Olympics Przybytek/Kolodzinski (Poland), the tenths from Rio, Seation/McGovern (Ireland), the German bronze medal winners Erik Heil/Thomas Ploessel as well as the fifth from the Europeans from 2015, Justus Schmidt/MaxBoehme, will be competing against the Brazilian sailor Scheidt. Altogether there are 61 crews from 23 nations promising exciting races. In the 470 class, the silver medal winners from Rio, Mathew Belcher/William Rayn (Australia), are among the top favourites. Anne-Marie Random (bronze/Denmark) in the Laser Radial and Thomas Zajac (bronze/Austria) in the Nacra 17 with a new female crew are bringing further medal glamour to Kiel.

The Olympic catamarans Nacra 17 will be experiencing a start into a new era in Kiel. For the Kiel Week, the mixed teams will still be sailing the catamarans with the C-foils, they have been using in the previous Olympic period. Right after the Kiel Week, they will be shifting to the new Z-foils one after the other, which will make the Nacra 17 become a full-foiler. The first official event then will be the Europeans in Kiel.

Para World Sailing Championships (PWSC)
After the Paralympic end for the sailing sport, the World Sailing Association has made a strategy plan for the next four years from 2017 until 2020. The objective: The sailing sport shall again be a Paralympic discipline in 2024. A hard way to go, which is leading via Kiel and has its grand opening at the Kiel Week (17. until 25. June). 80 active sailors from 40 nations from five continents in the participants' list of the PWSC say it all. The entry list is full of Paralympic glamour.

Heiko Kroeger (gold 2000 in Sydney and silver 2012 in London) will be sailing against the gold medal winner from Rio, Damien Zeugin (France), and silver medal winner Matthew Bugg (Australia) in the 2.4mR class. Together with Dee Smith (USA/4. at the Paralympics), Bjoernar Erikstad (Norway/5.), Antonio Squizzato (Italy/7.) and Niko Salomaa (Finland/8.), the whole 2.4mR world elite will be showing up at the start line in Kiel - with only the British sailor Helena Lucas missing out. This strong fleet shows, that the strategy plan of World Sailing to count on Kiel, is right. For the local hero Kroeger, it will be difficult to win the Kiel Week for the seventh time (open in the 1. part) and the eighth time (PWSC).