Day 2 - Telefonica Movistar Kite Pro 2008
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Race director Olaf Van Tol also noted, “The level of performance today is exceptional, no accidents, no collisions and very nice fair conditions - great performance from all the athletes.â€
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In the 4th heat of the day, world champion and United Kingdom’s Aaron Hadlow (Flexifoil) went against Spain’s Jaime Herraiz (North) who had a late entry. Herraiz hammed it up for the crowd while Hadlow went on about winning the heat with a good display of new powered moves.
In the 6th heat of the men’s single, last year’s top place finisher Nick Jacobsen (Slingshot, Denmark) went out first round against Spain’s Cesar Portas (North). The 24-year old two-time Spanish Champion beat Jacobsen with better technical and powered moves.
Riding super powered moves and throwing in grabs, the 19-year old New Caledonian Tom Hebert (Airush) proved too stylish and powered for Michael Schitzhofer (JN, Austria) in heat #7.
In the 9th heat and into the second round of the singles, good friends Petr Tyuskevich (Russian Federation, Cabrinha) and Madison Van Heurck went head to head with the Russian kiteboarder taking the win with regular and switch front mobe, blind judge 3, 313, kite loop mobe and slim over Van Heurck’s KGB and front mobe.
In the 10th heat, Blomvall went up against a much improved Romeu. The two riders who recently stepped up the pace went head to head in the heat with Blomvall still hot from his top performance in Cabarete taking the win with more riding power and landing several regular and switch tricks. In the next heat, Austria’s Julian Hosp went down against Spain’s Alex Pastor (Naish). Although Hosp had several regular and switch tricks, the heat was judged for quality over quantity with Pastor riding with lower kite angle plus landing cleaner and generally smoother tricks.
In the 12th heat of the single freestyle competition, the two Toms – Tom Court (North, United Kingdom) and Tom Hebert went up against each other with Hebert riding more powered and with greater technical difficulty plus a few switch moves winning the heat.
At the start of the third round of the event, Alvaro Onieva (Best, Spain) was the first to claim a spot in the final four defeating Tyuskevich with super smooth and powered moves. Onieva stomped a regular and switch slim, regular and switch back to blind air pass, mobe, kiteloop 5, 313, blind judge, s-bend to blind and hasselhoff compared to the Russian’s blind judge 3, 313, slim, mobe and kiteloop handle pass.
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ExtremeElements.tv managed to interview the world champion and got his opinion about today’s event. “I had a really good day, the conditions were very nice and I thought I was riding very well. In the third round I came up against Mike Blomvall and I was pretty confident that I won it actually that I came out of the water real happy. But it was a 3-2 decision the other way which I was pretty annoyed about. Maybe the heats are close but they say a lot of people are having more altitude and travelling further, but to me I’m just trying to keep my kite in the same place when I take off with my tricks. You don’t go as far or as high but using your body more for technical ability. I’ve done like 5 switch and lots of different things but the judges are thinking a different way and that’s what helped Mike to win the heat I guess. I’m really disappointed today with how it turned out but I know what I have to do for the double eliminations so I’m just going to have to ride to the strict criteria.â€
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ExtremeElements.tv managed to interview Hebert after the games for his assessment of his heat. “The condition was very good but the wind was not what I was prepared to – not so strong but it was okay. I did some good heats but then I went against Kevin in the third round. It was a pretty closed heat. I lost but its okay, I’ll just try to do my best in the doubles elimination.†The New Caledonian is a first-time competitor in Tarifa and he says he likes the spot much better than in Cabarete. “The wind is okay – smooth, not so strong but perfect for the 9m. The water is very cold for me but everyone is on the same condition, it’s a bit choppy but you just need to do what you know and try to do your best.â€
In the men’s semi-final, Onieva got the first berth in the final round, defeating Blomvall with more powered moves and a couple of switch moves. Blomvall’s higher kite angle moves (thus less power) plus a couple of crashes hurt his chances for a top podium spot. Langeree got the other final’s berth with huge blind judge 3, KGB, front mobe, s-bend to blind with aerial handle pass, s-bend to blind, kiteloop 5, plus a mobe, 313 and non-inverted slim which were all too powerful for Pastor to match. The Spanish kiteboarder landed a mobe, non-inverted slim, regular and switch slim, regular and switch back to blind air pass but weren’t enough for the speed, power and variety of Langeree’s moves.
In the battle for third place podium position, Blomvall landed a regular and switch back to blind air pass and slim plus a front mobe, mobe and double front to blind to win against the tiring Pastor who did manage a nice front mobe to blind, regular and switch slim and mobe. Power and technical variation was the deciding factor for this round.
In the final, Langeree rode with more power which included greater technical and bigger moves, defeating Onieva who settled for second place. Langere landed a regular and switch KGB, late pass mobe, front mobe, s-bend to blind with air pass, mobe 5 and non-inverted slim chance against Onieva’s blind judge, non-inverted slim, hasselhoff, mobe and back to blind air pass.
In the women’s events, Joanna Litwin (Slingshot) defeated fellow Polish kiteboarder Wiktoria Boszko (North) in heat #5 of the second round with a blind judge and slim against Boszko’s raley to blind and raley to wrapped. Air passes are more technically difficult and so are rated much higher. Also in the same heat, Bruna Kajiya (Best, Brazil) narrowly passed Laura Fernandez (Spain, Cabrinha) with an air pass. Fernandez landed several kite loops and down loops but lacked in technical difficulty.
In the 6th heat, a powered blind judge gave Karolina Winkowska (Naish, Poland) the edge over Spain’s Angela Peral’s (North) raley to blind and downloop to blind.
In the semi-final, Kajiya and Pulido both defeated their competitors to go against each other once more in the finals. Kajiya defeated Litwin with more powered riding while the young world champion Pulido let loose a huge repertoire of tricks to defeat Winkowska.
In the battle for third place, Winkowska battled Litwin, with the two riders stomping similar moves but it came down to a huge slim from Winkowska against a smaller and less powered slim from Litwin. The final round is a different story as Kajiya had some gear trouble in the middle of the heat, loosing about two precious minutes pushing Pulido for first round honours. Kajiya managed a butt-checked blind judge and s-bend to blind compared to Pulido’s slim, front mobe, front to blind, mobe, 313 and high handle pass front mobe.
