Qualifying Series at the 2015 Formula Kite Europeans
by IKA 26 Jun 2015 14:50 BST
25 June 2015
Light winds dominate the opening races at the 2015 Formula Kite European Championships © IKA
Light winds dominate the opening races at the 2015 Formula Kite European Championships.
The 2014 European Champions Oliver Bridge (GBR, North/North) and Elena Kalinina (RUS, Elf/Temavento) are on the best way to defend their titles. After 8 races in fairly light conditions both are leading their respective fleets with a perfect score.
In a highly competitive fleet, Bridge was able to keep considerable space between himself and his closest opponents, namely 2013 World Champion Florian Gruber (GER, Ozone/UC) and Blazej Ozog (POL, North/North) which are tied in points in second and third place. The top 10 in the mens fleet are still close together and the championship victory remains open.
In the womens fleet, the battle for the podium places is tight between Aga Grzymska (POL, Ozone/ML) in second and Catherine Dufour (CAN, Ozone/ML) in third. Anastasia Akopova (RUS, Ozone/ML) is close behind and could move up with another discard after some equipment problems yesterday.
The "Mercedes Benz GO BOZCAADA Festival" brings high level sport, music entertainment to this new holiday desination. Beside the conveted European Formula Kite Championship there are also Foil competition, Freestyle, 10km run, SUP races and daily concerts and DJ performances, including DJ Berna Ozturk and Ruben Lenten.
Racing continues throughout Saturday with the reminder of the opening series, before the medal races for the top 10 men and women take place on Sunday to determine the final results of the championship.
From tomorrow, KiteFoil Racing and the Bozcaada Freestyle open will add to the sportive programme.
See the full results [PDF] and photo gallery.