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 …
International Kiteboarding Association
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 …
2019 Formula Kite Asian Championships – Day One
Check here IKA report from the action of Day One in China, at the 2019 Formula Kite Asian Championships. DRAMA AT FORMULA KITE ASIANS AS LEADING WOMEN DEMOTED FOR ERRORS The four women who topped the standings at the 2019 Formula Kite Asian Championships found themselves dramatically pushed down the order when they were forced to retire from one race after discovering they failed to sail the proper course. For the young Polish pair—Julia Damasiewicz and Magdalen Woyciechowska, both 14—the mistake was a rude awakening to the complexity of top-level racing. Until their withdrawal for missing a mark and failing to complete a lap in the opening day’s second race, they stood first and second with respectively. Natalie Flintrop-Clarke (AUS) and China’s Jingle Chen conceded that they had suffered crashes on the track off south-western China’s Beihai city beach and had followed the leaders, failing to realise they too had made their own mistakes and shortened the course. The errors handed Benyapa “Fon” Jantawan (THA) the lead, with a bemused Bilge Ozturk (TUR) close behind in second after two races in the opening skirmishes of the International Kiteboarding Association (IKA) Formula Kite Asians. But with a further five days of …
2019 Pascucci Formula Kite World Championships – Day One
Check the IKA report from the first day of competition on Lake Garda, Italy. DEFENDING CHAMPIONS OPEN ACCOUNTS WITH FLAWLESS RUNS AT FORMULA KITE WORLDS Reigning kitefoil title holders France’s Nico Parlier and the US’s Daniela Moroz got the defence of their crowns off to a perfect start in stellar conditions at the Pascucci Formula Kite World Championships played out on the splendour of northern Italy’s Lake Garda. Both dominated their respective fleets, with a delighted Parlier taking all four of his races, while Moroz left the other women in the fleet of 30 trailing far in her wake on the trapezoid course in 10kts to 12kts of breeze. The opening exchanges of the 2019 edition of the International Kiteboarding Association (IKA) Formula Kite Worlds were fought out by the athletes in the largest and fastest foiling fleet ever assembled. The championship battles to be disputed over four days of high-octane action off Campione del Garda have drawn 87 men and 30 women from 29 nations, many spurred by the prospect of kitefoil racing making its debut at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. With such a large men’s fleet, it was divided into three seeded flights for the first …
2019 Pascucci Formula Kite World Championships
The 2019 Formula Kite World Championships starts in Italy. From 30th April – 05th May 2019, the best kitefoil racing riders will be competing on northern Italy’s beautiful Lake Garda. Check here IKA press: BIGGEST AND FASTEST FLEET IN YEARS SET TO IGNITE FORMULA KITE WORLDS The lure of Olympic glory has drawn the largest fleet in years—studded with all the world’s fastest kiteboard racers—eager to do battle on northern Italy’s spectacular Lake Garda at the 2019 Formula Kite World Championships. A full complement of 87 men and a remarkable roster of 30 women, many of them novices in the high-octane discipline of kitefoil racing, will take to the track at Campione del Garda in five days of competition. Last year’s decision to include mixed kiteboard team racing in the line-up for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris has encouraged many young athletes from a total of 29 countries to join the fray to hone their skills and race-craft, with nations like Britain, Poland and France showing impressive commitment. The International Kiteboarding Association (IKA) Pascucci Formula Kite Worlds will be decided over four days of fleet racing action, with a clutch of reigning and former world title holders fighting it …
Kiteboarding in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games
Kiteboarding is to become a full Olympic sailing event after World Sailing’s (WS) Council approved a submission that will see athletes take the stage at the Paris 2024 Games. The Events Committee of World Sailing, the world governing body for the sport of sailing including windsurfing and kiteboarding, approved submission M22-18 from the Romanian Sailing Association which includes two events for windsurfing, a new mixed one person dinghy event (i.e.Finn + new lightweight women’s boat), a mixed double handed dinghy team event (i.e. 470), and a mixed kiteboarding team event in addition to the five already confirmed events (2x single handed dinghy, 2x skiff, mixed multihull). Details of the “team” nature of the format have yet to be established, but could comprise national teams of men and women each accruing points from races, or a novel “relay” where the male and female athletes race alternate laps of the course. The International Kiteboarding Association (IKA) will work closely with World Sailing’s Event Committee to ensure that the format reflects the wishes and dreams of the competitive kiteboarders all around the world to showcase hydrofoil kiteracing at it’s best. The Equipment Committee, responsible within World Sailing for evaluation of the various equipment …
