Dutch Olympic Sailors on the road to Qingdao

by Simon Keizer on 21 Apr 2008
All Dutch Olympic and Paralympic sailors that are qualified for the 2008 Olympic games will compete in the 40th edition of this Olympic sailing event at the French Cote d’Azur.

Next to this core group a few other Dutch sailors and windsurfers are in Hyeres to try and qualify for the Olympics in China.

Delta Loyd Team NED
In the women 470 class Lobke Berkhout and Marcelien de Koning are qualified for the Olympic Games of this year. The triple World Champions won last month’s Sofia Cup in Palma de Mallorca.

Sven and Kalle Coster, who compete in the men’s 470 class, have also secured a ticket to China. Last week they won the Spring Cup in Sanary sur Mer and the brothers finished third in the Sofia Cup 2008.

Pieter-Jan Postma will represent the Netherlands in the Olympics in the Finn class. In 2007 Postma surprised some with the Silver medal at the Cascais Worlds and the Silver at the pre Olympics in Qingdao. During the Gold Cup 2008 in Melbourne, Postma just missed the podium with an OCS in the Medal Race. At the Sofia Cup 2008 he finished sixth.

The eight remaining Dutch Yngling sailors are all still in the running for the three spots to represent the Netherlands at the Olympics. They continue to sail as one team and they continue to rotate in various combinations in three boats up until the moment the Federation’s coaches decide for the team that goes to Qingdao.

The Dutch Yngling team had a rather poor World Championships in Miami in February 2008. But recovered well during the European Championships beginning of this month. With a third and fourth place two Dutch boats scored amongst the world’s best again.

Coach Maurice Paardenkooper decided on the following line up for the Semaine Olympique Hyeres:

• Marjon Kooistra, Brechtje van der Werf and Merel Witteveen
• Mandy Mulder, Annemieke Bes and Marije Kampen
• Renee Groeneveld, Marije Faber and Floortje Hendriksen

Kooistra is assistant coach and also ‘helmswomen’ during this event.

Team Zwitserleven
Mitch Booth and Pim Nieuwenhuizen finished sixth at the Tornado class World Championships 2008 in Takapuna, New Zealand. That was enough to secure their ticket to Qingdao, together with a third place at the 2007 Worlds.

Other Dutch hopefuls
In the RS:X class Casper Bouman and sparring partner Dorian van Rijselberge are both still in the running for a qualification for the Chinese Olympics. Bouman, won the World Title in 2006 and qualified the Netherlands as a nation in 2007.

But both him and Rijselberge are not yet qualified. They can still realise this on four occasions: Semaine Olympique Hyeres in April, the Europeans in Brest in May, The Delta Lloyd Regatta in Medemblik in May and during Kieler Woche in June.

If both windsurfers will achieve a qualifying result (one time top three or twice top six at events like Hyeres) a national selection system will decide who will qualify. This national selection system is the accumulated result of this event in Hyeres and the Sofia Cup. Bouman leads this National selection at the moment. Very interesting is the fact that both Dutch Windsurfers are doing very well at the first windy day in France. Bouman is second and Rijsselberge fourth overall with only one point apart.

In the Laser class there is a few Dutch athletes that can still qualify. It will not be easy in this extremely competitive class, but Rutger van Schaardenburg has an advantage as he already realised half a nomination in 2007. One more result like that (top 6 in Hyeres for example) and Van Schardenburg can book a ticket to China if no one else realises such a result.

In the Laser Radial (only for Women) Gea Jutjens is in the same position as Van Schaardenburg. Unfortunately she is injured at the moment and not able to compete in Hyeres. The other contestant is Marit Bouwmeester. She needs a top three result once or a top six result twice to qualify.

Both men and women in the Laser class can achieve these desired results during this week’s event in France, the Delta Lloyd Regatta in Medemblik, Kieler Woche in Germany or Europeans en het EK in Nieuwpoort Belgium in July.

Paralympic sailing
Thierry Schmitter won the bronze medal for the Netherlands at the Paralympics in Athens 2004. Schmitter now has only one goal, to win Gold in China. In Hyeres he can make it three in a row as he has won the 2006 and 2007 event.