2014 Formula Kite Asian Championships at Qatar - Day 1
by IKA 13 Nov 2014 07:33 GMT
10-15 November 2014
The first Internatonal Kiteboarding Championship to be held in Qatar got off to a great start yesterday, thanks to the arrival of some afternoon winds.
Kiters spent the morning preparing their equipment no the beach of Qanat Quartier, The Pearl Qatar, whilst waiting for the wind to pick up to the minimum requirement of 6 knots. At 10 am the first race for the Men's fleet went into sequence as scheduled, but the wind dropped down under the margin soon again and races where postponed. Just after 3 pm, the wind arrived back and the riders all set out to the race course.
The Race committee made the most of the varying conditions and got two races for the Men's fleet and one race for the Women's fleet in, before the sun set and further races where postponed to tomorrow.
Steph Bridge (GBR, North) held the lead and finished first Women's fleet ahead of Jade O'Connor (IRL, TMV/Ozone) and Elena Kalinina (RUS, UC/Elf), while her son Oliver Bridge (GBR, North) took first place in both races held for the men's fleet. In second position after two races sits Riccardo Leccese (ITA, MikesLab/Ozone) ahead of Mario Calbucci (ITA, TMV/Elf).
Racing continues until Saturday 15 November with the Medal series scheduled to take place.
The first start for tomorrow is scheduled for 10am if conditions permit, lasting until the sun sets at 4.45pm.
Results after Day 1:
Men
1. Oliver Bridge (GBR, North) 2 pts
2. Riccardo Leccese (ITA, ML/Ozone) 5 pts
3. Mario Calbucci (ITA, TMV/Elf) 8 pts
4. Florian Trittel (ESP, ML/Ozone) 13 pts
5. Alexander Bachev (BUL, UC/Ozone) 13 pts
Women
1. Steph Bridge (GBR, North) 1 pt
2. Jade O'Connor (IRL, TMV/Ozone) 2 pts
3. Elena Kalinia (RUS, TMV/Elf) 3 pts
4. Anastasia Akopova (RUS, ML/Ozone) 4 pts
5. Astrid Berz (SUI, ML/Ozone) 5 pts
Full Results can be found at internationalkiteboarding.org/images/documents/results/2014AsiansResults.pdf