The Mistral fully kicked in for day four of the 2022 Formula Kite World Championships in Cagliari, Sardinia, the wind pumping from 15 up to 22 knots, with some really hard gusts coming off the Sardinian shore.
Everyone came back off the water with a big story to tell. The adrenalin and the endorphins were still pumping through every rider’s body as they stepped back on to Poetto Beach while the ever-changing cloud colours scudded overhead.
The only thing that stopped Daniela Moroz in the four women’s gold fleet races was a UFD disqualification. In every race the American crossed the finish line in first place, and thanks to the discard the five-time World Champion still counts a perfect set of race wins.
Always pushing her hard, however, was the new European Champion Lauriane Nolot from France who won the race from which Moroz was disqualified, along with 3,2,2 in her other races.
The front two have a significant jump on the rest of the women’s fleet, making it very likely that Moroz and Nolot will earn the two automatic places in the four-rider final at the end of the competition this Sunday. Best of the rest after a really solid outing in gnarly conditions were Poema Newland from France and Breiana Whitehead from Australia, the Australian proving that her stand-out performance at the recent Europeans was no fluke.
As with the women’s fleet, there was a duel between two stand-out riders in the men’s gold fleet. Toni Vodisek from Slovenia and Max Maeder from Singapore won two races apiece, putting down a level of performance that the other 23 riders struggled to match.
Vodisek was overflowing with excitement after getting his kite down on to the beach. “That was a big day for everybody”, said the Slovenian. “I wanted to congratulate every competitor in every fleet out there because nothing was easy today.”
Earlier in the afternoon when the silver and bronze fleets were racing, a big black rain cloud loomed on the horizon. Even though one of the races was about to finish, it was abandoned in a bid to give maximum time for the riders to get upwind and back on to Poetto Beach.
Some made it in in the nick of time, others were still struggling to get back and were caught up in the worst of the 40 knots squall as it struck. Coach boats joined the rescue teams to help get every rider and piece of equipment back to the beach. Everyone was safe, no one injured, although a number of kites were damaged in the worst of the squall.
“I’m happy that everybody got out safe and no big incidents”, Vodisek said. As to his duel with Maeder. “He’s a legend in the sport, and it was great to push each other so hard. I was using my 15 square metre and it was too much. I pulled out of the last race as I wanted to preserve my kit. I should have been on the 11 square metre, but anyway, it was the right decision [to retire].”
Maeder agreed that Vodisek’s decision to use one of his discards to preserve his kite was the right move. “That was smart thinking by Toni”, said the Singaporean who jumped up from ninth to second overall today.
“He is such a strong competitor and hats off to him. He’s a wonderful rider and I enjoyed our competition on the water today. The choice of going out on the 15 [in those conditions] I will never do again though. I am sure that I would have been more efficient on the 11 [square metre] and it would have been safer for me and for my fellow competitors. I won’t make that mistake again.”
The 16-year-old admits that he does get scared when the board hits speeds of 37 knots or more. Today he hit a peak speed of 38 knots, although his all-time record is 43 knots on a board barely more than a metre long.
The best riders behind the front two were the Frenchmen Axel Mazella and Theo de Ramecourt who is the defending world champion. De Ramecourt was satisfied with his day after scores of 3,10,4,2 and he has closed the gap to Mazella to just three points.
Saturday sees the conclusion of Gold fleet racing before the top 10 men and women go through to Sunday’s climactic Medal Series. Starting at 1400 hours local time the gold fleet racing will be livestreamed on YouTube and Facebook.
Results Women (after 9 races)
1 USA Daniela Moroz 7p
2 FRA Lauriane Nolot 9p
3 FRA Poema Newland 24p
Results Men (after 10 races)
1 SLO Toni Vodisek 10p
2 SGP Maximilian Maeder 13p
3 FRA Axel Mazella 19p
Full results: http://www.formulakite.org/2022worlds
Andy Rice
