Celebrity World Championship podium: Clemens Kraus and Heiko Kröger (silver), Piotr Cichocki and Grzegorz Prokopowicz (gold) and Jens Kroker and Sabine Kroker-Hohmann (bronze) are well-known names in the para sailing scene. The official World Sailing medals have to be submitted later, as they got stuck in customs on their way from England to Germany. © Sven Jürgensen
Germany. Hamburg. Alster. NRV. August 29, 20221 Poland's Piotr Cichocki and Grzegorz Prokopowicz win the second inclusive sailing world championship with only a slim points lead over last year's gold medalists Heiko Kröger and Clemens Kraus. The bronze medal went to Jens Kroker and Sabine Kroker-Hohmann, who in the final races managed to relegate the Swedes Fia Fjelddahl and Markus Jenkinson, who had been in third place until then, to fourth place. Pia Sophie Langer, by far the youngest participant, sensationally finished fifth with her foresailor Lynn Wolgast.
Over four days, a total of 18 teams from 8 nations sailed for the world championship title on the still relatively young boat class Far East S\V 14. They fought between sun, rain showers and wind shifts. Especially in the front places it was hard work, especially since many prominent faces from the para sport met here, besides the mentioned also for example Sigi Meinka and Dirk Tahlheim, or the ninth placed crew from Estonia at the end - Peep Krusberg and Liivika Näks, to name only a few well-known names.
While at the same time the Paralympics take place for the first time without sailing, this world championship was a prime example of how wonderfully suitable especially sailing is as an inclusive discipline. After last year's very limited premiere of the world championship due to corona, this second world championship in inclusive sailing was a highlight with a lot of positive feedback from all sides - not only under the aspect of 'disability mainstreaming'.
The Far East S\V 14 is specially designed for people with handicap. At the 'Inclusion World Championship for Sailing', one person with a handicap and one without sailed together on this boat, a new format that focuses on the team and inclusion. A combination that is still very young in sailing, especially in regatta sailing.
At the award ceremony on the Alster, high-profile representatives from sports and politics affirmed the signal effect and the importance of such events. Massimo Dighe of World Sailing thanked the organizations and athletes for exemplifying inclusion in sport, thus also bringing inclusion into social spheres, Dr. Germar Brockmeier of the German Sailing Association thanked the NRV and all helpers for their commitment to inclusion and hoped "that one day we won't have to talk about inclusion when we all want to go sailing together, but that we'll just do it, no matter who we are."
Dr. Jonas Leder, director of the Landessportamt Hamburg and representative of the Hamburg Active City thanked the sailors, for the high-profile inclusive sport, which he himself was able to follow live on the water during the regatta.
Jens Kroker, who in addition to his role as an active sailor is also an athlete representative at World Sailing, sees the World Championships as a big step forward: "We need the feedback of the sailors, the helpers and the organization to move forward together, so such an event is a huge step forward!"
And NRV Chairman Tobias König used the award ceremony to thank all supporters for this event: "Without the support from outside, such an event is not feasible for a club alone," he emphasized with gratitude.
Sven Jürgensen, initiator of the World Championships in the North German Regatta Association, hopes that the World Championships will also be an impulse for other sports: "With this World Championships here in the middle of the city and with the broad support that we are experiencing for it, we hope to find imitators in other sports. Such lighthouse projects are important to motivate people to get into sports - in our case sailing. Sport itself has a door-opening effect and as such can have an impact in all areas of society, and that's just as important today as it was in the past."
'After the race is before the race'. In the North German Regatta Association it goes on next week immediately with inclusive showcase projects: The project 'Gelebte Inklusion auf der Regattabahn' (Living Inclusion on the Regatta Course) will start at Kiel Week in the J70 field and wants to show that sailing with disabilities can also be possible without special conditions.
