Visit Qatar GKA Freestyle-Kite World Cup kicks off
by GKA Kite World Tour 31 Jan 09:29 GMT
31 January - 4 February 2023
Visit Qatar GKA Freestyle-Kite World Cup - Day 1 © GKA Kite World Tour
Round one of the 2023 Qatar Airways GKA Kite World Tour season kicks off today (Tuesday 31st January) with the Visit Qatar GKA Freestyle-Kite World Cup at Fuwairit Kite Beach resort with awesome, turquoise-clear lagoon conditions on the menu.
Monday saw kiteboarding's leading freestyle athletes from four continents officially register for the competition; all looking to make a solid start to this new season that's packed with World Cup events.
Variety counts!
One important element to note is that this event also sees the introduction of some new Freestyle judging format changes, adding in extra variety and excitement. You can read more about those in the liveticker notes on the event live page here.
2022 was a big year for reigning women's World Champion, 18 year-old Mika Sol who further proved her competitive dominance by taking her fifth world freestyle title as well as her first big air World Championship last year. Now set on further broadening her approach to the sport, Mika has her sights firmly set on achieving at least ten world titles in her career. Read interview with her here
The men's reigning Champion is Gianmaria Coccoluto, who won his first GKA Freestyle-Kite World Championship in emphatic style at the final event of the 2022 season in Taiba, Brazil in November. The Italian put on one of the most spell binding performances ever seen in kiteboarding competition to claim his first title - read more in this interview with him.
This is the first event to be staged in Qatar following last year's announcement that Qatar Tourism has become the Official Tourism Partner of the GKA Kite World Tour for three years, with Qatar Airways becoming the GKA Kite World Tour's Title Partner and Official Airline.