European Kite Racing Championship - A critical race on day 4

by Icarus Sailing Media on 28 Jul 2013 The penultimate day of racing at the 2013 Kite racing European Championships was a critical one with the top riders having to perform at their best in order to make it through to the platinum fleet tomorrow.

Four races for the men and two for the women with everything at stake - all the riders were fully focused. The Bridge family has reserved the two top spots at the leader board with Steph having a clear lead from second; Roose and Steph’s son Oliver had a great performance yesterday extending even further his point difference from Russia’s Doronin who lies in second.

Even though he is only 15 years old, Bridge showed great maturity today and with solid results in the top five managed to keep his lead and go into the medal series tomorrow with a safe lead from Leccese who is now in second place, after a very bad day for Doronin who dropped in fifth . A great performance today from Holland’s van der Vlugt managed to climb him into fourth overall scoring three top five races.

In the women’s fleet everyone was waiting to see if the young Russian Kalinina who managed to score four straight bullets yesterday, would made it to the top 10 and continue racing tomorrow as well. With only two races on today’s schedule it would be a true challenge for her. Meanwhile Bridge had to keep in front of Roose in order to hold on to her top spot. But star of the day was again Kalinina – she scored another two bullets and marginally made it to the top ten with 6 first finishes and eight disqualifications, not a frequent sight. Bridge managed to stay close behind her and score two second finishes and extended even further her lead from Roose who scored two thirds.

With Bridge on the lead and Poland's Janiak completing the top 10 in the men’s fleet it is all about tomorrow with four races in schedule and everything possible. The small number of riders doesn’t allow many opportunities for covering the lost ground and it’s going to be hard for those that already have built a safe lead to lose their place.

Same schedule for the women as well, and it remains for another day to see if mother and son will achieve the remarkable and be crowned European Champions for 2013 in men and women.

As we go into the final day tomorrow, the championship is climaxing and all eyes are turned to Hang Loose Beach. A massive 14 races for the women's fleet and 15 for the two men's flights have been completed.

Leader board after Day four – End of Opening Series:

Mens Fleet:
1. Oliver Bridge (GBR / North) – 9 pts
2. Riccardo Leccesse (ITA / Ozone) – 25 pts
3. Maxime Nocher (FRA / North) – 31 pts
4. Rolf van der Vlugt (NED / Airush) – 41 pts
5. Blazej Ozog (POL / North) – 42.3 pts

Womens Fleet:
1. Steph Bridge (GBR / North) – 19 pts
2. Katja Roose (NED / Airush) – 27 pts
3. Christine Boenniger (GER / Flysurfer) – 45 pts
4. Agnieszka Grzymska (POL / Ozone) – 52 pts
5. Tatiana Sysoeva (RUS / Ozone) – 75.3 pts