Toni Vodisek and Daniela Moroz take the 2019 KiteFoil World Series Weifang titles. Check IKA report of the last day of competition. IKA Press Release: SLOVENIAN TEENAGER MAKES IT CONSECUTIVE WINS WITH TRIUMPH AT KITEFOIL WORLD SERIES IN CHINA Slovenia’s Toni Vodisek clinched victory in dramatic fashion at the death of the KiteFoil World Series’ second tour stop at Weifang Binhai, north-east China, after four action-packed days of tight racing in near-perfect conditions. Vodisek, 19, who dominated the tour’s first act in Gizzeria, Italy, in July, suffered a catastrophic crash while leading in the final day’s last race. He struck something in the water pushing hard on the first downwind leg, breaking his kite lines and putting him out of the race. But by then the teenager, who exploded into the top echelon this season, had already done enough in the regatta’s two final days to guarantee another top podium finish that puts him on course for the International Kiteboarding Association (IKA) KiteFoil world title to be decided at the series’ finale on the Italian resort island of Sardinia next month. Before that, though, Vodisek will again find himself pitched against the toughest opposition in a few days’ time at …
Formula Kite
2019 Formula Kite Asian Championships – Day Six
Check here the results of the final day of competition in China, at the 2019 Formula Kite Asian Championships. IKA Report: POLISH TEENAGER GRABS HER FIRST TITLE WHILE RUSSIAN VETERAN CRUISES TO VICTORY Poland’s Magda Woyciechowska landed her first international title when she sealed victory in the 2019 Formula Kite Asian Championships “open” division with a steely performance in fickle breezes in China. The 14-year-old was able to see off a strong challenge from her training partner and fellow countrywoman, Julia Damasiewicz, also 14, over four intense days of competition and 16 hard-fought races off Guangxi province’s Beihai city. Both finished ahead of China’s Jingle Chen who racked up a formidable haul of bullets and looked as if she could storm to victory at one point. But she stumbled in the light airs, failing to finish some races. It proved costly and she ended fourth, though it was enough to secure the Formula Kite Asian crown. By contrast Russian veteran racer Denis Taradin barely put a foot wrong. He seized a remarkable 12 bullets that gave a commanding points lead by the finish that landed him the 2019 International Kiteboarding Association (IKA) Formula Kite Asians “open” title. Italy’s Mario Calbucci …
2019 Formula Kite Asian Championships – Day Five
Day Five of the 2019 Formula Kite Asian Championships had mixed team races on the water. Check the report below. IKA Report: KITEFOIL ATHLETES GRAPPLE WITH FRESH CHALLENGES OF MIXED TEAM RACING Ambitious kitefoil athletes have had to reset their approach to top-level competition in the face of a new set of challenges since national mixed team racing was chosen as an Olympic discipline for the Paris 2024 Games. In what has until now been an essentially-individual sport, Formula Kite relay racing that will feature when kiteboarding makes its historic debut at the XXXII Olympiad’s Marseille sailing venue demands a fresh mindset. For Formula Kite veterans and ingenues alike, the mixed discipline is an exciting and intriguing breath of fresh air that adds an unexpected layer of complexity to already tricky windward-leeward racing on stratospherically-quick hydrofoils. But as elite racers at the 2019 Formula Kite Asians in Beihai, China, gathered to trial the new format—whereby the teams of one man and woman each complete one lap of a “short-track” course, with a “flying” handover—the wind refused to play ball and racing was cancelled. One day of the six scheduled for the regatta had been set aside to give athletes a …
2019 Formula Kite Asian Championships – Day Four
Check bellow IKA report from the fourth day of competition in China. IKA Report: FLYING POLISH TEENAGER CEMENTS HER POSITION AT HEAD OF ORDER Poland’s Magda Woyciechowska stretched her lead at the 2019 Formula Kite Asians, just besting her countrywoman and training partner Julia Damasiewicz in a day of scintillating racing in perfect foiling conditions in China. Local favourite and key rival, Jingle Chen (CHN), threatened to unseat the Pole when she exploded out of the blocks on the regatta’s fourth day at Guangxi province’s Beihai city—taking three bullets, two in the opening races. But even after pipping Woyciechowksa in a photo finish after audaciously stealing the lead on the final downwind leg in the day’s race four, Chen suffered disaster when she twice dropped her kite before the start and failed to start the final two contests. The catastrophe put her down the order to leave in her fourth overall, leaving the door open for Natalie Flintrop-Clarke who moved up to third after she scooped up a bullet and three third places in ideal 9 to 10 kts tropical breezes on the Gulf of Beibu’s flat waters. Russia’s Denis Taradin also made hay in the sunshine, continuing his winning …
2019 Formula Kite Asian Championships – Day Three
Find out all about the third day of competition in China. IKA Report: POLISH TEENAGERS SURGE TO TOP OF ORDER IN TOUGH CONDITIONS AT FORMULA KITE ASIANS Polish training partners Magda Woyciechowska and Julia Damasiewicz grabbed the top spots in the standings in the women’s fleet at the Formula Kite World Championships in China in fickle breezes that got the best of most of their rivals. The duo, both just 14, leap-frogged overnight leader, local favourite Jingle Chen (CHN), to secure the leaderboard’s first and second spots respectively in finely judged racing. In breezes that toyed with race officials, often dipping below 6kts and rarely getting above 8kts, Woyciechowska scored two bullets from the only two races possible in the start-stop racing off Guangxi province’s Beihai city. On day three of the scheduled six at the International Kiteboarding Association (IKA) Formula Kite Asians, the men’s fleet racing separately also only managed to get in two races, with a third abandoned when the already light breeze completely died on parts of the course. Still, Russia’s Denis Taradin had used the opening two contests to extend his points lead. Rivals in 17-strong fleet had few answers to his pace and tactical awareness …
2019 Formula Kite Asian Championships – Day Two
Follow here the report from the second day of competition in China, at the 2019 Formula Kite Asian Championships. CHEN THRILLS HOME FANS WITH NEAR FLAWLESS OUTING AT FORMULA KITE ASIANS IN CHINA China’s Jingle Chen shrugged off her forgettable first foray at the 2019 Formula Kite Asian Championships and threw down the gauntlet to rivals with an almost perfect performance on the regatta’s second day to surge convincingly to the head of the order. The 18-year-old scooped five bullets and a second spot in her day’s six races in ideal foiling conditions of breezes that varied from 8kts to 11kts on the flat waters off Guangxi province’s Beihai city, south-west China. Her stellar racing when she barely put a foot wrong and had enough speed to leave the others in the women’s fleet trailing was the mirror opposite of her first day’s efforts after she was forced to retire from both races, once for following the leaders’ wrong track. “I’m at the front today, so I have to follow my own course and that’s good for me,” she said. “The wind is much better today, perfect for my 21m kite. I’m getting good starts, which I think has helped …
