- On day one we reached Women’s Semi-Finals
- 35 riders (27 men and 8 women) from 16 countries registered for the second stop of the season
- Highlight moment of the day, was Mika Sol who got the top score 8.0 for a stylish Hinterberger 5.
Yesterday marked the first day of competition at the second event of the Qatar Airways GKA Kite World Tour season!
As was forecast, conditions delivered a medium strength NNE breeze on day one of the GKA Freestyle Kite World Cup Colombia, and we were able to run through the first and second rounds of the women’s heats.
With eight, extremely high-level athletes, the competition is fierce. While each competitor is striving to perform their best on the water, off the water—”we’re just one big family” said Spanish rider Claudia Leon.
Full report and action video is here.
In the first round, Nathalie Lambercht proved that she isn’t messing around, putting down four solid scores and taking the heat win over Alexandra Torres. In the quarterfinals, Estefania Rosa overtook Therese Taabbel securing her place in the semi-finals and Alexandra Torres laid down a huge S Bend Back 180 to beat out Matilda Roux.
Highlight moment of the day, was Mika Sol who took home the top score, scoring a solid 8.0 for a stylish Hinterberger 5. But let’s not forget Bruna Kajiya who is looking on top form who is looking hungry after a first season win in Qatar.
FORMAT
Following feedback from the event in Qatar, the judges have made some small adjustments to the GKA Freestyle-Kite World Cup Colombia criteria. The Freestyle-Kite competition format will still see the four highest scoring tricks counting to a rider’s heat score from a total allowance of seven trick attempts.
The variety score that was introduced in Qatar has now been removed but now riders are required to perform at least two tricks (and up to three) from the variety category and no more than two tricks (but at least one) from the heelside category.
*Each trick performed must be from a different category. For example if a rider throughs a 313 in a heat, then the second heelside trick must come from sub-family two, three or four and cannot be from sub-family one (Raley-based tricks).
The trick families are:
1 Heelside Tricks – which is divided into four sub-families
Sub-Family 1: Raley based tricks
Sub-Family 2: Slims, S-mobes and KGB
Sub-Family 3: Hinterbergers and Heartattacks
Sub-Family 4: Mobes, including double Half-Cab Mobes
2 Variety Tricks
Sub-Family 1: Toeside / Blind tricks
Sub-Family 2: Rewinds
Sub-Family 3: Combos
Sub-Family 4: Kiteloops or downloops
Words: Sensi Graves
Photos: Andre Magarao
