Formula Kite Youth & Masters Worlds 2014 at Cagliari, Sardinia - Day 3
by Icarus Sailing Media 17 May 2014 11:06 BST
12-18 May 2014
Welcome back to Sardinia for the third day of the Kiteboard Youth & Masters World Championships. The development of kite boarding has seen a stratospheric growth, not just in numbers taking up the sport, but in the technical evolution of the equipment, innovative racing formats, and expansion of styles of kiteboarding or kite racing – whilst always holding true to the natural freedom the sport offers – whatever your age, style of kiting or favorite kiting venue or place.
Kite surfing, whether racing or recreational, is firmly established as one of the world's most popular and accessible water sports. There are numerous events all over the world and a comprehensive competition schedule, whatever your preferred racing discipline.
Back to the action at the Kiteboard Youth & Masters Worlds, where today riders raised their kites high above the Gulf of Angels for yet another challenging day. With the qualifiers wrapped up yesterday, the masters are now seeded into the Gold and Silver fleets for the finals series. In Gold fleet, Brazil's Wilson Veloso upped his game to break the domination of Tomek Janiak, by scoring a bullet in the first race and following up with a second place. The day's second race was won by Spain's Pedro Garijo Velasco, who put in his best day of racing so far - a 3, 1 - to shift up to 5th overall, just one point behind Lithuania's Viktoras Seputa and Denmark's James Johnsen who are tied on 22 points, in 3rd and 4th respectively. Today, Tomek, just couldn't maintain his previously unbeatable scorecard, and dropped down to second overall. In the Masters Silver fleet, Erwin Gruber, father of the kiting star Florian, flourished in the conditions, shining at the front with a winning performance to take the control of the leaderboard.
In the Youth Worlds fleet, the close battle between Maxime Nocher from France and Maks Zakowski from Poland continues at a frantic pace as they both try to outsmart each other round the track. Maxime holds the overall lead, just 1 point ahead of Maks with the closest rider to the pair to be Florian Trittel from Spain. With 3 more races completed today, the pecking order is clear and it looks certain that the Youth Worlds title will go to either Maxime or Maks.
A stunning visual for the spectators on Poetto beach, and despite fielding the world's best masters and youth riders, the challenging conditions have proved tricky even for them. There is plenty more racing action to come, with the Championship titles looking set to go all the way to the last race. Stay tuned!