Whitehead Walks Away Fifth at Kite European Championships
by Lisa Darmanin / Australian Sailing Team 13 Sep 01:17 PDT
7-12 September 2026
Brei Whitehead in Action during the Kite European Championships © Robert Hajduk /
www.shuttersail.com
Townsville's Breiana Whitehead has closed out her international season with a hard-fought fifth-place finish at the 2026 Formula Kite European Championships in Akyaka, Türkiye, one of the sport's most celebrated kiting venues.
Akyaka is renowned for the powerful thermal winds that sweep through its mountain-framed bay with near-clockwork reliability. The venue lived up to the hype, delivering five straight days of fast, high-octane racing after a slow start to the regatta, with the wind initially refusing to play its part.
Whitehead thrived in the breeze, putting together one of her most consistent regattas of the season against a world-class field that included 2025 World Champion Jessie Kampman and three-time World Champion Lauriane Nolot.
"It's really nice to finally put a regatta together this year and finish off on a solid result for Euros," Whitehead said. "It's been a really fun week of racing here in Akyaka, Türkiye. The racing has been super fast and close."
With the venue delivering the perfect breeze, the women were almost exclusively racing on the 15-metre kite, the largest kite available to the fleet, producing the kind of high-speed racing Formula Kite is known for.
The venue rewarded sailors willing to commit early and carry maximum speed around the course. "The race course was pretty left-side favoured, so send it, get to the corner and get around the course as fast as you can," Whitehead explained. "It was really fun conditions to race in."
For Whitehead, the fifth-place finish caps off a year of learning and development as she builds to LA2028. Against a field packed with some of the world's best, she showed the speed and consistency to remain in the fight throughout the championship.
With her international season now complete, Whitehead heads into the next phase of her campaign with momentum from a strong finish in Türkiye the focus turns to preparing for the Olympic qualifiers in Fortaleza, Brazil, in January.
Full results can be found here.