Copa Kitley GWA Wingfoil World Cup Brazil 2023 - Preview
by Ian MacKinnon 22 Nov 2023 07:30 AEDT
21-24 November 2023
Copa Kitley GWA Wingfoil World Cup Brazil 2023 © Svetlana Romantsova
The fight for the men's crown in the FreeFly-Slalom discipline is going down to the wire and will be decided on the warm Atlantic waters of Cauipe at the Copa Kitley GWA Wingfoil World Cup Brazil.
France's Titouan Galea and Italy's Francesco Cappuzzo are locked together in the rankings of the GWA Wingfoil World Tour on equal points after five FreeFly-Slalom calls.
Now the athlete who finishes ahead at the discipline's concluding stop in Cauipe, north-eastern Brazil, will likely claim the crown. But France's Bastien Escofet still has an outside chance should Galea and Cappuzzo both falter badly in Brazil. With so much at stake, it will be a thrilling climax to the season-long drama.
The seventh and final stop in the Surf-Freestyle discipline in Cauipe, will also see our teenage world champions crowned after an epic season when the young athletes sent wingfoil levels soaring.
Double world titles
Spain's Nia Suardiaz, still just 16, closed out her first Surf-Freestyle world title at the fifth stop in Hvide Sande, Denmark, in September. Just a few days later she also secured the FreeFly-Slalom world championship crown.
But the second and third world championship podium spots in the women's Surf-Freestyle and FreeFly-Slalom will only be decided in Cauipe. France's Orane Ceris and Kylie Belloeuvre and the Netherlands' Bowien van der Linden are all in the running for placings.
The US's Chris MacDonald, 17, capped his season's dramatic rise when he took the men's Surf-Freestyle world title with a dominant win at the sixth and penultimate stop in Tarifa, southern Spain, earlier in October.
Gunning for win
The competition for the second and third podium places is a tight race between four Frenchmen, Malo Guénolé, the outgoing world champion, Alan Fedit, Axel Gerard and Bastien Escofet.
In the same way, the battle for the placings in the men's FreeFly-Slalom is close, with the French duo of Escofet and Fedit sitting just a few points off the joint-leaders—Galea and Cappuzzo.
Galea and Cappuzzo sit equal on points, though the veteran French racer is on top of the pile thanks to tie-break rules. But Galea and Cappuzzo have traded top spots at the last three events and they will no doubt be gunning for the win in Cauipe.