20250906, Tracy Cahn, Emerald Isle Khaleesii
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Men’s round four was the very close: Heat between Maxime Chabloz (15.93) and Francesco Cappuzzo (14.57). A scrappy fight for waves was separated by a marginal difference between two excellent front flips off kickers, in Maxime’s favour. But the most nail-biting heat, and perhaps most surprising result, given the predominant weighting towards wave riding, was the heat between Brazilian waterman and ex-windsurfing wave world champion Kauli Seadi, and French tour regular, Bastien Escofet.
Kauli had been first to take advantage with a good wave from left to right across the whole comp area early in the heat, before the two then traded good frontside waves. Six minutes to go in the ten minute heat and it was tight; 16.39 to 16.33 to the Brazilian. Bastien spent four minutes caught on the inside and had to paddle out past the shore break. He finally made it out and, with 90 seconds to go, landed a fully committed front flip that earned him a 7.23. He slipped into the lead while Kauli was caught on the inside and this was the best example of how the single freestyle trick could be used to make a crucial difference when wave riding more or less otherwise dominated proceedings.
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.
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.
The women's final was hard to beat in terms of excitement. In the end, it was a battle between last year's world champion Mikaili Sol (USA) and the experienced Bruna Kajiya (BRA), which the Brazilian finally won with her mix of experience and style. Louka Pitot (FRA) did not have an easy task ahead of him in the men's final, where he was up against three former world champions Carlos Mario (BRA), Valentin Rodriguez (COL) and Gianmaria Coccoluto (ITA). In the end, the pressure seemed too much for the young Frenchman, so that Coccoluto and Mario decided the victory between themselves. Coccoluto was able to win the fight by a narrow margin of only half a point and thus starts his season as defending champion with a victory in Qatar.
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.
Three premieres went down in the Open Faces books: Olivia Riedl caused cheers in the snowboard women's category with two backflips in her competition run and both a double frontflip and a double backflip in men's categories showed the insane level at this 1* qualifier contest.
Snowboard Men
Sebastian Kepplinger and Philipp Lanjus ensured an Austrian double victory in the category of snowboard men. Kepplinger showed a self-confident run from start to finish and delivered many jumps. Despite a short „butt-check" after a huge 360 over the first kicker, he followed up with a backflip over the second kicker and secured first place.
Snowboard Women
With a lead of more than 10 points on the second-placed Martina Matula from Slovakia, the Austrian Olivia Riedl was able to repeat her victory from the previous year and amazed the crowd when she showed two backflips in her run. Not only did she ensure a superior victory, but is also the first woman to show a (or rather two) backflip in an Open Faces Freeride competition!
Ski Women
Local hero" Vicky Candlin was able to claim a home win after her last year's third place. Candlin did a smooth run with safe cliff drops and good speed until the finish and was rewarded for her clever choice of line.
Ski Men
As freshly crowned Vice World Champion at the Freeride Junior World Championships in Kappl almost 3 weeks ago, the German Tiemo Rolshoven, who lives in Vorarlberg, once again proved his class. He opted for a clever line which earned him a lot of points and presented his „airs" with safe technique. Garnished with a „720", he got a top score and took the lead in the field of ski men's category.
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.
