Medal races to decide Formula Kite World titles

Istanbul, Turkey (August 22, 2014) – The fourth day at the 2014 Formula Kite World Championships saw drama for Oliver Bridge (GBR, North), when an error in equipment selection dropped him from the top of the leaderboard to 4th place.

In light winds, only two races for the men’s gold fleet were completed and Bridge had to suffer a DNS in the last race of the day which leaves him with 27 points that he can’t discard. Maxime Nocher (FRA, North) scored a solid 2-1 to sit in first place now before the Medal series. With his domination in the light winds of the Final series, he is 14 points ahead of the second placed Riccardo Leccese (ITA, ML/Ozone) and Blazej Ozog (POL, North) another point behind.

In the women’s fleet, Elena Kalinina (RUS, TMV/Elf) showed her dominance in light wind another time, and is now in third overall, only 0.3 points behind Erika Heineken (USA, ML/Ozone) who only scored 3-3-4 in the light wind races of the last two days.

Steph Bridge (GBR, North) is still on top of the women’s fleet with 4 points ahead of Heineken.

The medal race series on Saturday will see the top 10 men and women competing on a shorter course for four non-discardable races. With only 4 points between the top three in the women’s fleet, and 7 points between places 2 to 6 in the men’s fleet, the battle for the podium spots is still wide open. Nocher is the only one sitting in a comfortable lead, but 14 points with a total of 40 up for grabs still does not allow for any error.

Overall standings:

MEN:
1. Maxime Nocher (FRA, North) – 14 pts
2. Riccardo Leccese (ITA, ML/Ozone) – 28 pts
3. Blazej Ozog (POL, North) – 29 pts
4. Oliver Bridge (GBR, North) – 34 pts
5. Florian Gruber (GER, UC/Ozone) – 34.8 pts

WOMEN:
1. Steph Bridge (GBR, North) – 15 pts
3. Erika Heineken (USA, ML/Ozone) – 18.7 pts
2. Elena Kalinina (RUS, TMV/Elf) – 19 pts
4. Aga Grzymska (POL, ML/Ozone) – 31 pts
5. Astrid Berz (SUI, ML/Ozone) – 38 pts

Full results can be found here: http://internationalkiteboarding.org/images/documents/results/2014FKWorldsResults.pdf

Report by IKA media.