47 riders register at GKA Freestyle World Cup in Leucate
by Jim Gaunt 21 Apr 2019 17:54 BST
20-25 April 2019
Saturday's opening ceremony - GKA Freestyle World Cup 2019 © Svetlana Romantsova
Almost four months since the unique amalgamation of the GKA Air Games World Tour and the World Kiteboarding Championships - the GKA Kite World Tour welcomes these riders to compete in the freestyle discipline! It has been a long wait to finally bring the world's best freestyle riders and GKA crew together for the first event!
An impressive field of 33 men and 14 women registered on Friday evening for the GKA Freestyle World Cup Leucate, made up of the current cream of the freestyle crop, including both double World Champions from last year Carlos Mario and Mikaili Sol.
Other previous World Champions are also fired up and raring to go here in France, too. Liam Whaley is back from a knee injury sustained at last year's GKA Air Games event in Tarifa, Alex Pastor is also lining up alongside many riders who cite him as an inspiration while there's an exciting return promised for Bruna Kajiya in the women's event.
14 year-old Mikaili took advantage of Bruna's absence through meniscus knee injury last year to romp her way to both the GKA Air Games and WKC Freestyle World Titles. Prior to that, Bruna had herself dominated. To many, the Brazilian's return is a surprise, but immensely welcomed as it sets up a true master versus new Jedi match up.
Click here to see all registered riders and to check out the heat ladders (we will be explaining more about these line-ups in the coming days on the website and via the livestream).
Once the action kicks-off, there will be a livestream running, hosted by Lewis Crathern.
You can now find everything you want to know about the event at www.gkakiteworldtour.com/events/gka-freestyle-world-cup-france-2019