Day 1 of KiteFoil World Series Gizzeria saw 96 competitors racing in blazing sunshine in the south of Italy.
In the women, Ellie Aldridge was leading after three races when an accident in the fourth race, when she lost control and her foil caught Alina Kornelli AUT on the foot, caused her retirement.
“I had some ventilation on the foil, lost control, the foil flew out of the water, swung round and caught Alina on the foot. She’s having stitches and so it’s been a bit of an up and down day.”
Even so, Aldridge lies in third overall, just three points behind the leaders . . . Poema Newland FRA and Daniela Moroz USA who are tied on nine points.
Other leading British competitors are Maddy Anderson in sixth and Katie Dabson eighth.
In the men’s event, Connor Bainbridge is in sixth place, 12 points behind last year’s winner of Kite Foil World Series Denis Taradin of Cyprus.
Tardin discards his first race, a remarkable eighth place finish after he realised just minutes before the start that he had launched without his competition number bib.
Returning to the shore for his bib, he relaunched and crossed the start line of the first race about 45 seconds after the gun.
Playing a game of catch-up using his awesome straight-line speed, Taradin caught up to 8th place by the finish of the 16-minute race.
Taradin has a two point lead from Toni Vodisek SLO and a six point advantage over Axel Mazella FRA.
Reigning Youth World Champion in the A’s Youth class, Gian Stragiotti SUI, made a strong start to the European Championships with three wins from four races.
Jan Koszowski POL was the only rider to take a race off Stragiotti and sits in second overall, with Giuseppe Paolillo ITA third.
Kitefoil World Series – Men – Leaders after 5 races (49 entries)
1st CYP 11 Denis Taradin -8 1 1 2 2 – – 6 pts
2nd SLO 41 Toni Vodisek 1 3.0 RDG -7 3 1 – – 8 pts
3rd FRA 44 Axel Mazella 2 3 4 -7 3 – – 12 pts
4th ITA 38 Lorenzo Boschetti 3 2 (DNC) 4 6 – – 15 pts
5th 61 Riccardo Pianosi 4 -5 5 5 4 – – 18 pts
6th GBR 15 Connor Bainbridge 5 6 2 6 -9 – – 19 pts
7th FRA 14 Theo De Ramecourt (DNC) 4 12 1 5 – – 22 pts
8th GER 66 Florian Gruber 7 8 8 8 -13 – – 31 pts
9th USA 47 Markus Edegran 9 7 3 (RET) 17.3 RDG – – 36.3 pts
10th BRA 33 Bruno Lobo 11 -16 11 10 7 – – 39 pts
Kitefoil World Series – Women – Leaders after 5 races (32 entries)
1st FRA 31 Poema Newland -5 4 1 2 2 – – 9 pts
2nd USA 71 Daniela Moroz 2 1 -7 3 3 – – 9 pts
3rd GBR 28 Ellie Aldridge 3 2 3 (RET) 4 – – 12 pts
4th NED 30 Annelous Lammerts -6 3 4 5 6 – – 18 pts
5th FRA 68 Jessie Kampman 1 7 -24 4 13 – – 25 pts
6th GBR 25 Maddy Anderson -9 9 2 6 8 – – 25 pts
7th FRA 100 Lauriane Nolot 4 (DNC) 22 1 1 – – 28 pts
8th GBR 56 Katie Dabson 8 6 5 -9 9 – – 28 pts
9th ISR 21 Gal Zukerman -13 5 8 12 7 – – 32 pts
10th NZL 26 Justina Kitchen 7 (DNC) 10 8 12 – – 37 pts
