Israeli sailors Eili Vorheit and Yuval Brannon won the silver medal on Wednesday at the Sailing World Cup in Kiel, Germany, in the 49er class. Vorheit races for Bnei Herzliya and Brannon for Hapoel Tel Aviv Yacht Club. It was the pair’s first international medal and the best result of their partnership so far.
The Kiel regatta was one stop on the World Cup circuit and featured 90 boats in the 49er class this year. Vorheit and Brannon entered the medal races in first place after the qualifying rounds, carrying 8 penalty points and holding a narrow two-point lead over the Swiss team and four points over the Americans. The event used a new format, with the top 10 qualifiers racing two medal heats.
After a tight tactical battle in the first medal race, the Israelis slipped to sixth in that heat and fell to third overall, tied on 14 points with the Americans, while the Swiss moved into the lead with 13. In the final race, the Swiss finished fourth to secure gold, the Israelis placed fifth to take silver, and the Americans slipped to seventh for bronze.
Vorheit said the unstable weather helped them: “It was a competition with difficult weather and unstable conditions, but in this case it worked in our favor.” He added that two medal races were valuable preparation for the European Championships. Brannon said they started strongly and improved through the event, and that after finishing sixth at last year’s European Championships they now have “an opportunity to correct” that result in two weeks. Coach Ayal Levin said the weak winds suited them and that the team will arrive at the Europeans with confidence.
The European Championships will begin in two weeks, just a few kilometers from Kiel, where the world’s leading teams are already training. The result adds to the rapid rise of Israel’s 49er program, which only entered local activity in recent years. Last year, Tal Sadeh and Maor Abo won Israel’s first European Championship medal in the class, bronze in Thessaloniki, and also reached the podium in a World Cup event in Portugal. Abo and Sadeh are not competing in Kiel because Abo has been recovering from a long injury. Israel’s Ram Magen also competed in Kiel in the ILCA7 class and finished 32nd among 119 sailors.
