IKA Kiteboarding World Championships Sardinia – Day 5
by International Kiteboarding Association on 21 Oct 2016
Day 5 - IKA Kiteboarding World Championships Sardinia Alexandru Baranescu
It was a typical start for the second-to-last day of the event, blue skies once again covered the Sardinian coast with a slightly lighter strength breeze than the previous two days. The wind was still very contestable however with most riders using between eleven to fourteen square meter kites.
As the finals had all been run the previous day, today was used to complete the heats for the lower placed rankings. The big question for the day of course being whether Martinez could win two heats and come back for a fifth place finish and secure himself the world title!
In his first heat Martinez faced fellow Dominican rider Del Rosario, the heat was a strange one with Del Rosario performing almost all of his tricks outside of the box, both riders on the beach and judges were wondering whether this had in fact been scripted from the start? Del Rosario had a cheeky looking smile on his face which makes us think it likely that it was.
Martinez progressed from this first heat to go up against the local Italian rider Contini. This final heat kept everyone on the edge of their seats as it looked like the pressure had maybe got too much for Martinez as he was having trouble landing even some of his easiest tricks.
It came right down to the wire, only ten seconds before the end of the heat Contini was still in the lead with Martinez only scoring four out of a possible five tricks, Martinez desperately needed another.
With only five seconds to go Martinez managed to pull off a big 315 which sent him into the lead, winning the heat and as such taking out the 2016 Freestyle World Championship Title! The beach erupted in applause as it was announced that Martinez had won the World Title.
Tomorrow is the last day of the competition period here in Sardinia. As the competition is now completely finished the riders can relax and wait for the awards ceremony tomorrow where the winners of this event will be announced formally as well as the winners of the 2016 World Championship titles in both Big Air and Freestyle for Men and Women. Stay tuned for the press release tomorrow with a full summary of all the results and the overall world championship standings!
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