Kona Worlds 2019 at Lake Garda - Day 1
by Circolo Surf Torbole 16 Aug 2019 22:12 AEST
15-18 August 2019
The Kona Worlds started today with the maximum of races planned per day: four regular races with a wonderful 16 knots south wind, which intrigued not just the Italian windsurfers present in Garda Trentino, since it is a type of board that Italy has never seen before.
The board proved to be a upwind and agile downwind technique, recalling a little the course race boards that have always been very fun in gliding as well as challenging. But what surprised the most was the spirit the competitors faced the race that although it assigns world class titles, it is first of all treated as an opportunity for travel, vacation, meeting with friends who come from 14 countries and all ages.
Being there for the sake of sailing, competing, even though there is no goal as Olympics or something higher; a way to face the regattas that in Italy has a little disappeared and from this point of view the Kona's world is "teaching" a lot. So a very pleasant climate at the Circolo Surf Torbole for this August event, which puts sports tourism in first place.
The first day of racing was challenging for many competitors, who struggled to finish all four races; the wind has settled to 16 knots, immediately selecting the most prepared and the "amateurs".
The protagonists immediately came to the spotlight: in the head after the first races is the Swedish Holm Bjorn, three-time World Champion Kona, who with 1-3-9-1 is in the lead with one point ahead of the American Alexander Temko, currently world champion (title won last year in Florida) and the youngest to have won the overall title at just 17 years old.
The American with two thirds, a fourth and a sixth precedes in turn two points the Danish Tim Aagesen, high-level competitor in several classes (Mistral, World Cup, Formula Windsurfing as well as of course Kona), which with the application of the gap that will take place with the fifth race, will be able to go up the provisional ranking, thanks to its partial, which were two first, a fifth and an eleventh. The same goes for the Dutch Jan Tak Huig (2016 world champion), who is currently in fourth place with two excellent seconds, a quarter and a thirteenth. First female reigning Canadian champion Andree Gautier. On Friday 16th August a further four races are scheduled.
Results:
Event web page: