Four days and 17 races later Denis Taradin (RYF) and Daniela Moroz (USA) are the winners of the KiteFoil World Series Gizzeria, the first of five events of the 2021 season. They have both been leading since the early stages of the event, Denis fighting till the very last race with Axel Mazella (FRA) only one point behind him in the final ranking and the winner of today’s second race. Toni Vodisek (SLO) is third with more than twice the points of the first two, but it is a big achievement for the Slovenian rider who was forced to a halt for an injury at the end of the 2019 season.
“I looked at the results after the last race and I saw Axel was only one point ahead of me, but I had more bullets in case of a tie, so it came down to the one of us who won the last race, just the way I like it. I am very excited to have won, it is very unexpected. I am happy I performed well with light wind, living in Tarifa, it’s a blessing and a curse, as we always have strong winds, especially in the summer”, commented Denis Taradin.
“It started out light, we were on the 19mt kite, I did a good job on the first race after which I was on a tie for first with Denis, then I won the second and got one point ahead of him before the last race. On the last start there has been a tangle with Denis himself, and I guess I could have protested him, but I would never want to win that way, and I think he deserves the win cause he has been a very strong competitor and I am happy for him and for my performance”, said Mazella at the end of the last race.
“I’m happy for my third place, the competition was so much fun, it brought back a lot of memories from two years ago, I haven’t trained much this year and I wasn’t really in the game this week. Congratulations to Denis and Axel, it was a blast”, said Toni Vodisek.
The fastest among the women is Daniela Moroz, 31st overall, silver goes to Poema Newland (FRA) – 34th – and bronze to Ellie Aldridge (GBR) – 37th. “I am super happy, it was super fun, both boys and girls put up a nice fight and made it so much fun. I am happy I managed to take each race at a time, and just kept following the plan even if some things didn’t go the right way. For the next event I would like to improve on anything, there’s always room for improvement, right?!”, commented an excited Daniela.
Today’s three final races were held with wind around 14 knots, flat sea and great expectations, the fleets were keen to get in the water, some might have been too eager and the initial leader of the series, Connor Bainbridge (GBR), was early over the start line, jeopardizing his podium chances. He finished seventh, with Nicolas Parlier sixth and Maxime Nocher (FRA), winner of the last race, fifth. The fourth overall is Theo De Ramecourt (FRA) climbing two positions from yesterday, after a great day today that saw him winning the first race.
As the curtain falls for this year’ first KiteFoil World Series Act, it opens right away for the Formula Kite U19 Individual Worlds and A’s Youth Foil Worlds starting on Wednesday July 14th right here, in Gizzeria, Italy. The next KiteFoil World Series event will be held in Traunsee, Austria, from September 15th to 19th.
