GKA Freestyle Kite World Cup
On the fourth day of the Visit Qatar GKA Freestyle Kite World Cup in Fuwairit, Qatar the stage was set for the world’s best freestyle kitesurfers and the competition entered the final rounds. Spectators literally crowded the beach in Fuwairit to watch the spectacle with their own eyes. After the previous day again failed to provide the necessary wind for the freestyle kitesurfers, the riders on day 4 were now more than ready to decide the winners of the first World Cup of the season among themselves.
The journey for a later Freeride World Tour career starts with valuable points in the 1 and 2 star contests. The "bowl-like" wide face of the Wiedersberger Horn is described in the scene as the optimal terrain for fast, playful runs. In between you will always find one or the other cliff, which brings valuable points for the final result.
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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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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