Maeder slows down for Fair Play and Sportsmanship

The French have come out ahead after five hard races on a tricky day one of KiteFoil World Series Sardinia.

Axel Mazella is a three-time winner of the Kitefoil World Series and sits on top of the leaderboard, albeit the Frenchman is only a point ahead of Max Maeder of Singapore. In the women, a strong finish to the day put France’s Jessie Kampman in front of Israel’s Gal Zukerman.

© IKA media/Robert Hajduk: Five sensational - but tricky - races out of Poetto Beach on day one

RAINBOW WARRIORS

Today’s racing was the most colourful the KiteFoil World Series has witnessed in more than two years. After domination of the kitefoiling circuit by the uniform green and grey Flysurfer kites, the new generation of kites which have been approved for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic cycle are projecting a rainbow of glittering new colours across the race course.

Mazella and his fellow test pilot Connor Bainbridge from Great Britain are happy to be back flying their favourite brand, the Ozone kites. Benoit Gomez took two race wins from the five heats using his self-designed Element kites with their nature-inspired ‘wave edge’ profile, which are proving popular with many others in the fleet. And proven performers like Kampman and Maeder are staying loyal to Flysurfer, whose kites are also enjoying a colour upgrade.

© IKA media/Robert Hajduk: Jessie Kampman looking determined. Determined to have fun

ARE THEY QUICK?

New colours aside, the more important aspect of the new kite designs is: are they quick? Mazella is enjoying this period of rejuvenation and experimentation in the fleet after the high-pressure summer of the Paris 2024 Games.

“We are all excited about racing with the new gear, but also you can see that everyone is talking about the new gear after every race,” he says. “They’re saying, ‘oh this one is better, or finally, this one is better.’ Or ‘this foil is also better than the others’, but opinions are changing all the time.

“We have worked hard on the design of the new Ozone kites, going from four strings to two strings for less windage but everything is a compromise. We try to push all the parameters but it’s pretty hard to be the best everywhere in all conditions. With the Ozone we have tried to improve the upwind profile without losing our downwind skills. It’s a lot of new technology, a lot of hard work, to develop these new kites.”

© IKA media/Robert Hajduk: Axel Mazella with his typical 'game face', surging to the front

AN HONOURABLE ‘GO SLOW’

Aside from the technical aspect, the human side of kitefoil racing is always present and it came to the fore at the end of race two. Mazella and Maeder were locked in a match race all the way around the race course, some way ahead of Martin Dolenc of Croatia in third, who in turn was a long way ahead of the rest of the pack.

Then for the last 200 metres into the finish, Maeder and Mazella went into a ‘go slow’ while Dolenc was fast approaching from behind. The trio trickled across the line in close succession, the slowest finish imaginable in a Kitefoil World Series race. Maeder explained later: “I slowed down so I could give the others [the rest of the fleet] a chance of getting a finish score,” he said.

© IKA media/Robert Hajduk: Germany's Olympian Jannis Maus at the end of an idyllic day in Sardinia

“As soon as the first person finishes, the timer starts ticking down and when the timer runs out, everyone else gets a DNF [Did Not Finish] on the scores. We had managed to catch the right wind shifts in that crazy wind but the fleet was really spread out and it seemed right to give the others a chance of getting a finish, so the three of us agreed to slow down together.”

Maeder said he had been given the idea a week earlier by Italian friend and rival Riccardo Pianosi when competing at the Italian Championships. “It was a nice idea that Ricky gave me and we’re here to have fun, right? We're all here to learn and improve and and it would be a shame if you get cut out of the results for no reason.”

© IKA media/Robert Hajduk: Sunset over Poetto Beach

NEW WOMEN’S WINNER? YES

Competition is proving close in the women’s fleet after today’s five races, with Kampman only a few points ahead of Zukerman. There has to be a new women’s name on the trophy this year because Daniela Moroz of the USA is taking time out after Paris 2024 and last year’s winner Lauriane Nolot is coming back from a trampolining injury she picked up just days after winning Olympic silver from France.

Aside from Kampman and Zukerman, Italy’s Maggie Pescetto and Switzerland’s Elena Lengwiler are among the leading contenders for women’s victory in Cagliari. Three more days of competition to go at Kitefoil World Series Italy, and so far the winning has gone to many different riders, which is just how it should be.

The final two days of racing - this Friday and Saturday - will be livestreamed on YouTube and Facebook.

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