Gold Medal Moroz at World Beach Games

Doha, Qatar (October 15, 2019) – Daniela Moroz (Lafayette, Calif.) won the gold medal today in the women’s kitefoil racing competition at the inaugural edition of the World Beach Games.

Organized by the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC), 97 countries are at the 2019 competition which features 14 disciplines in 13 sports, all non-Olympic events different from the Tokyo 2020 program and are gender equal.

As the lone Sailing event, racing began on October 13 but it had been a stop-start schedule of competition, but on finals’ day there was no holding back Moroz who stormed to victory in the women’s division.

The four-time and defending Formula Kite world champion dominated all three previous days of competition, winning five of seven opening series races to enter the final as the highest qualifier.

This meant she only needed to win one race to grab the gold, which she did in style, leading from the outset to romp to victory over second-placed Julia Damasiewicz (POL).

“I knew I wanted to go right next to the boat, so I did that really well, and then we had a really big [wind] shift just before the start, so I think I read into that really well and played it off well,” Moroz said after her win.

“I’ve won pretty much every title I can get this year which was my goal for the year so I’m really happy with that and it feels awesome. It’s been a really good year, probably the best of my career so far.

“But I’m excited to be done for the year and returning to college at the University of Hawaii, where I will be competing on the sailing team. I’ll be training in Mexico over the winter holidays.”

Despite a difficult week, with several delayed and rescheduled races, and the eighth planned opening series race cancelled due to low winds, Moroz was delighted with her experience at the Games.

“I just think that I’m out having fun for just another session in the afternoon with a bunch of my friends,” she said, when asked how she copes with changes to the schedule. “We might have to wait, but in the end we’re just having fun.”

Tomorrow, the men will take to their foils for the semi-finals. With Frenchman Nicolas Parlier and Florian Gruber of Germany already through, the top 12 of 19 from the opening series races, which includes Evan Heffernan (USA), will battle it out for two remaining places in the final.

Event details – Results