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06 / 11 / 2011
Exciting, tense, BMW Berlin Match Race - Markus Wieser (Germany), Keith Swinton (Australia) and Eric Monnin (Switzerland) in the semi-finals
Wieser is through to the next round after a heart-stopping quarter-final with sun and a constant wind at three wind speeds, Keith Swinton (Australia) and Eric Monnin (Switzerland) are through to the semi-finals, Jochen Schümann completed his Wannsee home-coming in eleventh place.
With the Round Robin barely over, the tension hasn't abated at Wannsee. On the contrary! The sailors duelled in the quarter-finals at noon, with six teams fighting it out in brilliant sunshine and a brisk wind at three wind speeds. In a best-of-three, the opponents had to defeat their rivals in order to qualify for the semi-finals.
Top German sailor Markus Wieser did just that against the young helmsman William Tiller and his New Zealand Full Metal Jacket Racing team, who recently became Asian Match Racing champion. "It was already 2-1 to the Kiwis, when we won fourth race by a narrow margin of a few centimetres. The New Zealanders lost their nerve," said Berlin resident Wieser. "The fifth race then turned into a mini final and we were victorious in the end."
Yesterday's birthday boy Pierre-Antoine Morvan (France) unfortunately lost out on a late present and lost to the strong Australian Keith Swinton. Swiss sailor Eric Monnin fought for every inch against the strong-nerved Staffan Lindberg and in a surprise result, won 3-2 against Lindberg.
"We made it all very exciting. Ultimately in every case, the fifth race was the decider between a place in the semi-finals or a journey home," said Keith Swinton, when he came back to shore and sighed a deep sigh of relief.
In the afternoon helmsman Jochen Schümann and his team returned to the water. He competed against sailing reporter Carsten Kemmling for the last place. In the German - German duel Jochen Schümann came out on top.
The tension on the Wannsee, the live presentation from two famous sports presenters Andre Keil (NDR) and Nils Kaben (ZDF) and the smell of suckling pig cooking at noon lured the audience to sailing club house on the Wannsee. The "MS Schöneberg", a heated spectator ship directly on the race course, was constantly well-attended.
All results can be found at: Results
