1* FWT Qualifier and 2* FWT Junior Event
lpbachtal – AUT: Freeriders show exceptional performances
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Tamar has had a love for horses her whole life. Spending her childhood years in a busy and competitive stable yard, taught Tamar all she needed to know about running a yard of her own. Receiving tuition from one of South Africa’s top-ranking riders - Barry Taylor, Tamar opened Farnham Riding School & Livery Yard with the plan in mind to offer a top quality tuition and livery service.
Tamar is a SANEF level 2 qualified instructor and received the highly recognised qualification of FEI level 1 coach in 2011 and completed Level 2 in 2012. Tamar specialises in competitive riders and teaches with great enthusiasm, with the focus being on horse and rider being a team to achieve their personal goals. The success of Tamar’s pupils speaks for itself and her dedication and passion for the sport and her clients is obvious in the consistent results they achieve.
Tamar competes at 1m50 level and has had a very successful career. Tamar has competed in the South African Derby, as well as most World Cup Qualifier shows around South Africa, Her highlight to date is winning the very prestigious Nissan 6-Bar Event in 2014, clearing the jump at 1m77 on her pride and joy, Toko.
After taking time off from riding (She remained coaching) after a knee operation and to have her first child, she is now back in the saddle bringing on many competitive young horses. Of note are Con Alma, a 5year old Warmblood jumping in the 1,10m classes, Cosmo K, a 6 year old Warmblood jumping in the 1.20m classes, and the now infamous little thoroughbred, Outeniqua (or Pocket Rocket as he is called on the SJ Circuit) on whom Tamar competes successfully in the 1.35/1.40m classes.
Tamar is a keen and savvy business woman, very dedicated to her sport and spends hours in the saddle learning and growing with her horses. Her knowledge and enthusiasm for show jumping makes her a great ambassador for our Equi-Feeds brand.
The route was full of steep, technical and spectacular coastal trails that pushed the riders to their limits – the riders mastered a total of 265 km with 6100 meters of climbing. Some of the world's best riders from 30 countries competed, among them 2021 World Champion Andreas Seewald (GER), the current Cape Epic champions Georg Egger (GER) and Lukas Baum (GER), as national champions like Martin Stosek (CZE), Wout Alleman (BEL) and Hans Becking (NED). After four tough days of racing it was once again Georg Egger (GER), winner of the 2022 Mediterranean Epic, who proved to be the strongest, riding to solo victory in the general classification. In the women's race, Luisa Daubermann (GER) was the surprise of this year's Mediterranean Epic. She rode a flawless race without faltering and claimed the victory in the overall classification.
The group that was to fight for the stage at the end consisted of Georg Egger, Martin Frey (Singer Racing Team), Martin Stosek (Canyon Northwave), Marc Stutzman (Canyon Northwave), Andreas Seewald (Canyon Northwave), Krzysztof Lukasik (JBG2 Cryospace) and Wout Alleman (Wilier-Pirelli). On the final climb, the race was blown up again by Egger's push. Only Frey and Seewald held on and it came down to a sprint of the three, which Frey won, while Egger came second and Seewald completed the all-German podium. With this result Egger took the lead and there was a radical change in the remaining top 10 places: Seewald moved up to second place, although he was already more than 3 minutes behind his compatriot.
In the women's race, the decision seemed to be in favour of Laura Daubermann (Trek Future Racing) after she had won the first two stages and had a lead of almost 7 minutes in the overall classification. But Janina Wust (Buff-Megamo) never gave up. The Swiss decided the race for herself and only Daubermann could stay with her. Not only did she miss the stage podium, but she also had to watch her lead in the overall standings shrink to just over a minute. With one stage to go, the overall standings are still completely open.
This year's schedule boasts five stops in five different countries, with two finals events and a two-run format in Fieberbrunn, where riders' top score will count towards their result. To up the pressure even more, and to reward those with the nerves – and legs – of steel, 12,500 points for first place (instead of 10,000) will again be up for grabs in the FWT finals events.
So far this season, riders in every category have shown the world why they are the best of the best, pushing the limits and each other to new extremes. The ski men's category is extremely tight, with reigning FWT World Champion, Maxime Chabloz (SUI), sitting on top just 80 points clear of rookie Max Hitzig (GER). Ludovic Guillot-Diat (FRA) and Molly Armanino (USA) in the snowboard men's and ski women's categories, respectively, have narrow leads over the rest of the field, while Katie Anderson (CAN) – snowboard women – is sitting comfortably ahead after two spectacular wins.
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The women were up first and Bruna Kajiya got the day started with her ever impressive clockwork style. But it was women’s tour leader and reigning world champion, Mikaili Sol, who hit the alarm for what was to come, opening her account with a huge stalefish slim 5 and then a 317 on trick four.
In the men's race, Manoel Soares had the chance to win his first world title. As the draw would have it, he faced second ranked rider Gianmaria Coccoluto in that quarter final, as well as Valentin Garat and a local ripper with a huge reputation, Erick Anderson. All Gianmaria Coccoluto could do at this event was keep winning his heats and hope that Soares would trip up before reaching the semi finals. Now it was in his hands, but even if he won the heat he’d need help from one of the others to push Manoel into third, and out of the competition. Coccoluto produced a performance for the ages. Attacking without fear, he ripped Taiba lagoon apart like never before. Soares led after two tricks, but started to slip as the Italian hit full beast mode, scoring two nines and then two tens in succession that sent goosebumps through the crowd and left the judges in awe. Having uncharacteristically caught a front edge on his third trick, Manoel started to look tense. He forced out a 319 and a 315 and then the backside 315 on his last trick attempt just wasn’t good enough to overtake in-form lagoon specialist, Erick Anderson, who went through to semis behind Coccoluto.
There are still three contenders for the title, but only two remain in the competition. Manoel now has to sit things out and wait to see if Gianmaria or Juan Rodriguez will win the event or not. Those two meet next in the semi-finals!
The route was full of steep, technical and spectacular coastal trails that pushed the riders to their limits – the riders mastered a total of 265 km with 6100 meters of climbing. Some of the world's best riders from 30 countries competed, among them 2021 World Champion Andreas Seewald (GER), the current Cape Epic champions Georg Egger (GER) and Lukas Baum (GER), as national champions like Martin Stosek (CZE), Wout Alleman (BEL) and Hans Becking (NED). After four tough days of racing it was once again Georg Egger (GER), winner of the 2022 Mediterranean Epic, who proved to be the strongest, riding to solo victory in the general classification. In the women's race, Luisa Daubermann (GER) was the surprise of this year's Mediterranean Epic. She rode a flawless race without faltering and claimed the victory in the overall classification.
Jack Rieder (CAN) and Posito Martinez (DOM) were the two standouts of the Second Round and were among the riders that utilized the wave kickers the most. They also executed handle passes in both directions demonstrating excellent skill and a wide array of maneuvers. As they moved into the Third Round, a few athletes put on notable performances. Among them was Dominican Luis Alberto Cruz (DOM) blew everyone away with extremely massive back-to-back tricks, demonstrating control and height! He scored the highest single trick score of the day, managing a 9 for his Front Side 900 off of a wave kicker on the outside.
Carlos Mario (BRA) who took second place in Qatar has been in Colombia training for one month and is gunning for first place here in Salinas del Rey. He landed a Dum Dum 5 that was one of the highest scoring tricks of the day.
Making it through as top performers in the men’s division, we can’t look past the Brazilians Manoel Soares and Carlos Mario, clearly at home in these lagoon and warm wind conditions. They were the only two riders to break 30 point heat scores – with relentlessly smooth technicality. Just before the Brazilians ended the day on a high, yesterday's challenger, Gianmaria Coccoluto, held off Arthur Guillebert, Adeuri Corniel and Robin Goetebuer in his quarterfinal. Swiss star Maxime Chabloz was challenged in the quarterfinals by German Finn Flugal, who is only 13 years old. The young teenager put up an impressive fight, but failed to reach the 5.90 on his seventh and final trick attempt, which he needed to put Maxime under pressure again and secure second place.
In the women's event, Bruna Kajiya achieved the highest score of the day (22.73) and won the first round thanks to an amazingly close chance just before the end, which she somehow held on to with 7.30 points! Nathalie Lambrecht unfortunately lost to Bruna in this round, but managed to beat Alexandra Torres and Estefania Rosa in her subsequent individual round and was the second highest scorer of the day with 19.33.
Both women teams started the game very strong and presented an attractive game with many defenses. The Swiss were able to gain a small lead, although it was never bigger than 4 points. During almost the full game duration of 3x 15 minutes the Swiss women were slightly in front. However, the Italian girls kept on fighting and, rightly, believed in their chances. In the last few minutes of the game, they managed to take the advantage and at the final whistle they had won the game by 2 points: 50-48.
In the final of the men's category, the line up was identical than in the women's game: Switzerland vs Italy. The two teams know each other very well and in the last final they met, at the European Championship in the United Kingdom in August, Italy had won the game. This time the Swiss wanted revanche and were ready for the meeting. Both teams showed, in front of several hundred spectators, an outstanding level of play. The Swiss did believe in their chances to win the game, but at the end, it was Italy who claimed the win on the result on 76 – 73.
Winner Women and World Champion: Mikaili Sol (BRA)
Retaining her title to become the Qatar Airways GKA Freestyle-Kite Women's World Champion 2022, Mika is a truly dominant force in the sport at the moment and now has six kiteboarding world titles. Already far enough ahead in the final to be assured of reclaiming her crown, Mika's grabbed Stalefish Slim 5 on trick six had all of her most unique traits about it – full entry and exit power, technical brilliance and style, and scored a huge 9.0 from the judges, contributing to her commanding 31.67 overall heat score.
2nd Place Women: Bruna Kajiya (BRA) and 3rd Place Women: Rita Arnaus (ESP)
1st Place Men: Gianmaria Coccoluto (ITA) demonstrated to the world at this event exactly how freestyle kiteboarding should be performed. Utilising the perfect conditions of Taiba, the Italian put on a spectacular and progressive display of riding throughout every heat and his performances included the highest heat score ever on the GKA Kite World Tour, with 38.74 points from four tricks in the quarter final. Although Maxime Chabloz came close to stealing the event win in the dying moments of the final, Gianmaria is the new and much deserving Qatar Airways GKA Freestyle-Kite Men's World Champion, having proved himself as the ultimate freestyler in the ultimate location against the ultimate field.
2nd Place Men: Maxime Chabloz (SUI), a unique multi-discipline competitor. 3rd Place Men: Erick Anderson (BRA), a local hero.
Yesterday, Europe’s premium freestyle event celebrated a premiere, for the first time ever Freeskiers were part of the event. The FIS World Cup made its first guest appearance at the LAAX OPEN 2023 with two sport disciplines – snowboarding and freesking. Olympic champion Zoi Sadowski Synnott (NZL) and World champion Marcus Kleveland (NOR) take home the LAAX OPEN Slopestyle titles, while Japanese Junior Olympic champions Ono Mitsuki (JPN) and Ruka Hirano (JPN) are the 2023 Halfpipe champions. The winning quartet has one common denominator - the first LAAX OPEN victory for all four!
Premier victories for Johanne Killi and Andri Ragettli at the FIS Freeski World Cup in LAAX. Reigning Slopestyle World Champion and local hero Andri Ragettli (SUI) wins ahead of Olympic Champions Alex Hall (USA) and Birk Ruud (NOR). No stranger to the LAAX victory podium is Johanne Killi. As the first LAAX OPEN Freeski winner, the Norwegian completes the loop to the European Freeski Open, held in LAAX in previous years where she won in 2014 as a newcomer.
This year's schedule boasts five stops in five different countries, with two finals events and a two-run format in Fieberbrunn, where riders' top score will count towards their result. To up the pressure even more, and to reward those with the nerves – and legs – of steel, 12,500 points for first place (instead of 10,000) will again be up for grabs in the FWT finals events.
So far this season, riders in every category have shown the world why they are the best of the best, pushing the limits and each other to new extremes. The ski men's category is extremely tight, with reigning FWT World Champion, Maxime Chabloz (SUI), sitting on top just 80 points clear of rookie Max Hitzig (GER). Ludovic Guillot-Diat (FRA) and Molly Armanino (USA) in the snowboard men's and ski women's categories, respectively, have narrow leads over the rest of the field, while Katie Anderson (CAN) – snowboard women – is sitting comfortably ahead after two spectacular wins.
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