GKA Freestyle-Kite World Cup Neom 2022
Maxime Chabloz and Gianmaria Coccoluto break heat scores of 30 points on day one
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Day 2 showed a true battle of the generations, as the more experienced wingfoilers did their best to stand their ground as a whole new fleet of young riders came in to give them a run for their money.
Women: The strong levante started to kick in at the start of the women's quarter finals, reaching up to 25 knots. Experience in these tough Tarifa conditions, together with consistency proved to be key elements to advancing through this round. There were no surprises as all of our top seeded riders advanced through this round to the semi-finals. Nia Suardiaz, Paula Novotna, Flora Artzner and Bowien van der Linden all remained in the competition for an opportunity to take the win at this event. Bowien put on the best female performance of the day, with her toeside frontside 3 scoring her 5.30 points.
Men: There were some stand-out performances for round 2, particularly from the younger riders who showed amazing determination and capability in the strong, difficult conditions. Axel Gerard rode a great heat, landing a 6.30 point front flip that allowed him to advance to Round 3. River Moore, 14 year old local rider, lost a very close heat with Xavi Corr in Round 1, so for Round 2 he showed even more determination, closing his heat with an impressive backflip scoring 7 points and giving him the opportunity to remain in the competition for Round 3. The highest scoring heat of Round 2 went to Frenchman Bastien Escofet, who achieved an overall score of 8.30 for his spectacular front flip. Round 2 finished with an outstanding performance from one of the youngest local riders, Nathan Berger, who defeated Riccardo Zorzi with an unstoppable display of riding which included a massive frontside 7 scoring him 8.4 points and allowing him a well-deserved spot in Round 3.
The wind unfortunately dropped during the final heat of round 2, which will be continued tomorrow, as the levante wind is once again in the forecast for the coming days.
River Moore is a local 14 year old competitor who is competing at a World Cup event for the first time here at his home spot. "To compete here at my home spot is just incredible", said River. "The wind today has been tricky, and it definitely picked up throughout the day. I just missed out on my first heat, but in my second heat I was fully powered on my 3 meter wing, and managed to land my tricks. The thing with wingfoiling is that we have race and freestyle, and it's always fast no matter what. You can go high, the landings are awesome, and it's just a great sport. It's bringing a community together, joining people from kitesurfing and windsurfing together."
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.
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.
Reigning world champion James Carew was dumped from the GKA Kite-Surf World Cup on the second day of the contest on Cape Verde in epic waves. The Australian, who had been hoping to land a third successive title, lost the final round of the day by only a fraction of a point to Cape Verde-based legend, Airton Cozzolino. The victory of Cozzolino, an Italian who calls the island home, drew wild cheering from the delighted crowds on the beach. But the celebrations were muted as the judges reviewed their scores because the heat had been so tight. Both riders, who have been training together, embraced as they came ashore. It was a sign of their mutual respect after a truly spectacular, 18-minute clash on epic Ponta Preta swells in the sinking sun. The tense drama, with the pair separated only by 0.13 of a point in the end, was worthy of a final. Yet, Cozzolino only has the privilege of advancing to the competition’s quarter finals where other Cape Verdean locals lie in wait.
The competition is set to move to the quarter finals stage for the men and women on Sunday, with hope of completing both finals.
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.
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.
After several attempts, the final was able to start, but four riders went over early. Titouan Galea, Oscar Leclair, Ancor Sosa, and Camille Bouyer had to sail back to shore, missing out on the final race. This was a window of opportunity for the six remaining riders. The challenging wind conditions certainly did not make it easy, but Bastien Escofet managed to accelerate his way to the front of the pack and head into the final FreeFly section in the lead, pumping his way to the finish line to claim his fourth elimination win. Chris Mac Donald cruised through in second position, and Zane Schweitzer in third. Local rider Hugo Wigglesworth finished fourth, followed by Francesco Cappuzzo who went down due to a drop in wind but managed to somehow finish the course to claim the sixth position.
The final results for the men’s FreeFly-Slalom discipline are:
1st Bastien Escofet (FRA)
2nd Francesco Cappuzzo (ITA)
3rd Camille Bouyer (FRA)
The final results for the women’s FreeFly-Slalom discipline are:
1st Nia Suardiaz (ESP)
2nd Aimee Bright (NZL)
3rd Bowien van der Linden (NLD)
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 mens final was a showdown between two of the youngest riders on tour. Our current World Champion Malo Guenole vs Chris Mac Donald. Both went trick for trick, with Chris opening with a 7.43 point Back Flip. Malo responded with an outstanding 8.63 point Front Side 7. Chris continued building scores, nailing a Front Side 7 and Front Flip, and just managed to steal the win from Mal by 0.8 points. An incredible final from two of the strongest athletes on tour.
The womens final consisted of two of our strongest riders, Nia Suardiaz and Bowien van der Linden were matched up for an intense heat. Nia achieved three solid scores and managed to gain an advantage over Bowien, allowing her to claim her first event win of the 2023 season.
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