GKA Kite World Cup – Dakhla – Day Four – Game of KITE
Mon 7th Oct, 2019 @ 9:30 pm
Game of ‘Kite’ bonus event! Pippa van Iersel and Liam Whaley combined their skills, prevailing over six other teams to win the supersession.
As the official GKA Kite World Cup Dakhla Freestyle discipline came to a close yesterday, we moved on to a fun event on day four, in the form of a team Game of K-I-T-E.
In round one there were two heats with seven teams in the competition.
Judging Criteria: Land or crash!
Format: Game of Kite – teams. Judges dictate the tricks that need to be completed in each round. One rider from each team attempts that trick in rotation. If they land it then great, but if they crash it, they get a letter. First two teams in each round one heat to collect the letters K-I-T-E would be eliminated, leaving the other two teams to advance. Basically it’s 4 crashes and your team is out.
In the super-final, the competition ran until there was just one team left – the winners
Wind: 20 knots
Round One Results:
Heat 1:
1st – Pippa van Iersel & Liam Whaley
2nd – Mikaili Sol & Maxime Chabloz
3rd – Nathalie Lambrecht & Louka Pitot
4th – Alexandra Torres & Robby James
Heat 2:
1st – Paula Novotna & Romain Giuliano
2nd – Rita Arnaus & Edgar Ulrich
3rd – Therese Taabbel & Arthur Guillebert
The Final Super Session
Although this final was just for fun it was good to see the riders working as a team to land a really mixed variety of tricks – everything from a double front roll to double heart attacks as well as kite loop front rolls and more!
We’re excited to see these super sessions develop over the years, pushing the all-round skills of the riders and the fun for the crowds.
In the end, Pippa and Liam were pretty dominant, crashing just one trick out of eight between them, by which time all the other teams had been eliminated, crashing four times.
The Final Super Session Results
1st – Pippa van Iersel & Liam Whaley
2nd – Mikaili Sol & Maxime Chabloz
3rd – Rita Arnaus & Edgar Ulrich
4th – Paula Novotna & Romain Giuliano
Rider Quotes:
Liam: “When they announced yesterday that they would be doing this event, I quickly grabbed Pippa as my partner and it was good to do some tricks that we don’t usually train for. It was fun and I had no crashes, whereas Pippa had one, so I guess I’ll get more of the prize money, haha.”
Pippa: “It was good, my teammate had no crashes, I had only one and I’m stoked to land a slim, which I’ve not done before!”
Maxime: “I have to say the four tricks in the final were definitely not my sort of tricks. I never train them, but now I will!”
Mika: “It was pretty interesting, I made all my tricks, whereas my partner Maxime was struggling, so ha, nothing more to say.”
Find out more, right here!
Sunday’s Women’s Official Freestyle event saw Mikaili Sol extend her lead at the top of the championship over Bruna Kajiya with one round to go. Nothing’s in the bag yet though!
Women’s Highlights Video
Win a T-Shirt and Hoodie this issue in our FREE subscriber prize draw.
Tomorrow will see a Freestyle ‘Best Trick’ competition run before the official prize-giving for the Freestyle event at Dakhla Attitude. The live event page will keep you updated throughout the day.
Monday 7th October 2019
Location: Dakhla, Morocco
Words: Jim Gaunt
Photos: Ydwer van der Heide
Video: Oliver Umpierre
