Big Air World Champions crowned in Gran Canaria
by Christopher Museler, GKA Media 14 Jul 2024 17:46 BST
9-13 July 2024
Qatar Airways GKA Big Air Kite World Championships in Gran Canaria © Svetlana Romantsova
In a momentous final day where riders lit up the sky off the rocky shores of Salinas de Tenefé, the "next level" of Big Air competition was revealed by the new champions, pushed by a relentless posse of younger athletes.
Zara Hoogenraad (NED) and Jeremy Burlando (ESP) were declared the Qatar Airways GKA Big Air Twin-tip Kite World Champions having lead the way with pressure packed, innovative and explosive styles at the final stop of the Big Air tour in Gran Canaria.
Each heat of the frenzied and windy event finished with razor thin margins until the end. The multi-event championship culminated with the most suspenseful finals heats in memory, with both Hoogenraad and Burlando winning both the event and the world title with their final, no-holds-barred jumps.
Knocking out top contenders
Pippa van Iersel (NED) was on top of the world title hunt heading into the Gran Canaria championship having won the most recent Big Air event in France after overcoming injury, but lost her shot at the crown after her elimination in round two.
With her Dutch counterpart out of the running, Hoogenraad, now the top contender for the title having finished third in the last Big Air event, was left only to contend with Francesca Maini (GBR) for the title in a ruthless who-beats-who scenario to win. Intense and dramatic airs won the two tickets to the finals, along with Lana Herman (SLO) and Alice Ruggiu (ITA).
The wind was whipping the white-washed point off Salinas de Tenefé as Maini started to leg out with insane aggression and height, exactly what the judges were looking for from the riders. But the lead began to switch between the riders as the final heat hammered on, until Maini jumped to a slim lead of less than a point.
Only one jump was left for Hoogenraad and with a shout from her coach on the shore, she popped an outrageous 9.53-point Kite-loop Forward-roll, also known as a "double boogie loop," a first ever successfully landed one of its kind in women's Big Air competition. She launched into first by just over a point and secured both the event win and became the Qatar Airways GKA Big Air Twin-tip Kite Women's World Champion 2024.
"Before the final jump I knew I had to do a sick trick," said an emotional Hoogenraad, whose boyfriend, men's Big Air competitor Giel Vlugt (NED), was supporting her from the shore. "I wasn't sure what to do and Giel yelled to do a double boogie loop. I had never done one before. It's never been done by a woman in competition. But I thought, if that's what I have to do to win a world title, I will. I looked up in the middle of the jump, saw the second loop and kept going for it."
Maini wound up second and Herman third, while Ruggiu was close behind in fourth.
A Canarian affair
Leading the hunt for the world title was Jamie Overbeek (NED), who had won the Big Air event in France. The Dutchman had just squeaked through the opening day's elimination rounds and had the easiest mathematical path to win the world championship, until falling in his semi-final heat.
Now the riders who had won nearly all their heats with massive point totals heading into the finals were ready to raise the bar of Big Air competition. Brothers Lorenzo Casati (ESP) and 15-year-old Leonardo Casati (ITA) had qualified from opposite semi-final heats. Their Canarian training partner, Jeremy Burlando had an easy path to the finals having posted some of the highest individual jump scores of the competition. Stino Mul (NED) also had several heat wins bringing him to the finals.
Overbeek needed some chips to fall in place to win the title, but luck was not on his side. The lead changed with each jump, riders stomping their landings after flawless kite-loops and back-rolls. Burlando had landed a breathtaking 23.7-metre jump but found himself in a position much like Hoogenraad's: less than a point behind the leader and one jump left.
Burlando nailed it. A 19.2-metre jump with a Contra-loop Front-roll finished with a Tic-tac, gave him a 7.30 score. It gave him the half-point lead that he needed to beat out Lorenzo Casati and become the Qatar Airways GKA Big Air Twin-tip Kite Men's World Champion 2024.
"The heat started really poorly, and I said, 'It's now or nothing'," said Burlando, who trains down the road from Salinas de Tenefé. "I did what I do every day. This is my life. Before that last jump I was really present. Not in the future or the past. I was telling myself, 'Do it. You know the tricks.' And I landed it almost perfect."
Stino Mul rounded out the podium only a half-point ahead of Leonardo Casati in fourth.
New world order
Breaking down this championship, it was clear that Big Air as a discipline had grown in these two days of exhausting and explosive competition.
"Seeing the level of the women, it's just remarkable innovation this week," said GKA Big Air Head Judge Javier Santangelo. "Zara Hoogenraad (NED) landed the first ever S- loop in women's competition. There's a lot of risk and commitment now. The men were going crazy. We asked for extremity and they delivered."
Burlando's high finals score of 9.27, for a mind-bending Kite-loop Front-roll board-off manoeuvre where the kite was nearly horizontal while the Spaniard was free falling was exactly what Santangelo was talking about.
The containers were covered in thick layers of reddish-grey dust and the kiters were still riding in the sunset as the Qatar Airways GKA Big Air Kite World Championships 2024 came to a close. If this year's championship is any indication, this discipline is only going up.
2024 GKA Big Air Kite World Championships Gran Canaria event results
Women
1. Zara Hoogenraad (NED)
2. Francesca Maini (GBR)
3. Lana Herman (SLO)
4. Alice Ruggiu (ITA)
Men
1. Jeremy Burlando (ESP)
2. Lorenzo Casati (ESP)
3. Stino Mul (NED)
4. Leonardo Casati (ITA)
2024 GKA Big Air Kite World Championships
Men
1. Jeremy Burlando (ESP)
2. Jamie Overbeek (NED)
3. Lorenzo Casati (ESP)
Women
1. Zara Hoogenraad (NED)
2. Francesca Maini (GBR)
3. Pippa van Iersel (NED)