KPWT Essaouira day 8: Wind!

Day 8 on the KPWT ESSAOUIRA WORLD CUP 2009 and the wind arrived to run another round of the freestyle competition.

It was an important quarterfinal for all the riders, as the results would decide the ultimate and final champion for this discipline for 2009.

In the first match up, Leander Vyvey (BEL, JN) faced a strong competitor in Mike Blomvall (SWE, NOBILE). The first heat was postponed due to dropping wind conditions, but they managed to finish the heat in the latter stages of the round. It was closely matched and the decision was not an easy one for the judges, but in the end Mike Blomvall progressed into the semi final. He will face Vincent Tiger (FRA, F-ONE) after he defeated Mike Schitzhofer (AUS, JN), who has shown huge progress this year on the KPWT and will be eagerly watched next year.

On the other side of the draw, Jesse Richman (HAW, CABRINHA) faced Blazej Ozog (POL, NORTH). Jesse looked relaxed and confident in his heat, leaving the pressure of the overall standings behind him and progressed into the semi final. He will face the unofficial World Freestyle Champion 2009, Petr Tyushkevich (RUS, FLEXIFOIL) who defeated Antoine Auriol (FRA, KITELOOSE) in the other quarterfinal. Petr performed a huge kiteloop 3 that looked to fly over the judge tower followed by a super KGB and justified his results this year with a powerful performance in his heat against Antoine.

In the women’s heats, Gisela Pulido (SPA, AIRUSH) went out on her 9m and looked to have enough power to perform her maneuvers and defeat last year’s overall champion, Ania Grezlinska (POL, NORTH).

The wind then dropped off below competition standards just before lunch and no more heats were run today. Lets hope we get enough wind tomorrow to complete the freestyle and hopefully run some races!

KPWT Technical Team:

Frédéric Gravoille: Promoter
Richard Mellon: KPWT Magazine
Stephen Marret: Speaker
Diogo Cardoso, Luis Miguel: Cameramen
Julien Gazeau: Photographer

English: http://www.kpwt-events.com/2009/essaouira/
French: www.kpwtessaouira.com For further information:
Please visit: www.kiteboardpro.com
KPWT promoter: kiteboarding@wanadoo.fr
KPWT Magazine: www.kpwtmagazine.com