QINGDAO. The medal hopes of the pinta racing team did not come true in the Olympic Games. The star boat team Marc Pickel and Ingo Borkowski from Kiel and Babelsberg ended the sailing competition in Qingdao on Tuesday (21 August) with a seventh rank overall, after sailing to a fourth place in the final medal race. Steffi Rothweiler and Vivien Kussatz (Munich/Berlin) had already sailed to rank nine overall in the 470 women’s class.
German star boat team Pickel/Borkowski on the last day of racing on the Qindgao race course, China
“We have lost the medal already on the day before, because of two tactical mistakes”, Marc Pickel drew a self-critical balance, “26 points on one race day had been too much.” In the medal race sailed by the top ten they had only a theoretical chance to end among the best three. But the wonder of Qingdao did not happen. The team from Great Britain Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson became Olympic champions and silver went to Robert Scheidt and Bruno Prada from Brasil. Fredrik Lööf and Anders Ekström from Sweden who had started into the medal race from the top of the ranking had to cope with the bronze medal in the end.
For the medal race which was eagerly expected the Fushan bay course did all but prove its image. Instead of the usual light winds a tropical storm was on its way and brought fresh, very gusty winds and a lot of rain.
“On the upwind leg after the start the fleet was very close together”, the helmsman reported of tight fights. They rounded the mark 20 seconds behind the leaders. Only on the second upwind leg they took position four and defended it until the finish.
The level of the competing fleet in which six world champions started was shown by the fall of the Swedish crew. They had been sailing the best series so far among the fleet of 16 boats but finished the medal race last, only eleven seconds behind their direct competitors Percy/Simpson. And the gold medallists reached the finish on rank five - behind Pickel/Borkowski!
“But that doesn’t help us at all“, said Ingo Borkowski dryly. He had won a silver medal in Sydney 2000 in the Soling class with Jochen Schümann and Gunnar Bahr. “We are not looking for excuses as it was up to us”, Pickel added. The result has to be dealt with now, but they already set their eyes forward again: “Maybe we will get another chance in four years.”
