Leader of the Pack-
by Steve Bodner
The final 2 days of the Kite
boarding North American North American Championships concluded with the fleets
broken into gold, silver and finally a new platinum fleet with the top 10
competitors duking it out among the best of the best for the last 4 races of
the series.
The new format gave competitors a
chance to race within a championship regatta but unlike the recent ISAF World
Cup events - consistency is rewarded. The platinum fleet carried their first 2
days score into the final round and took 1 throw out after 8 races. Thursday
gold and silver fleet races added 4 more races to the mix for each fleet and
another throw out and finally 4 more races on the final day with racing for the
platinum fleet limited to the top 10 and 1 discard for a total of 3 discards after 16 races.
That was enough for Johnny Heineken
to secure victory in what has become an amazing run over the last few years
winning almost all of the events he's entered. Bernie Lake made a huge push
with consistent results never outside the top 3 and was rewarded with 2nd place
overall in front of Columbian 'Ricki- Bob' Leccesse.
With 37 racers in the silver fleet,
it was anyone's game in the top few places but Andrew Wong from Canada- after
having made the transition from lasers to kites a few years ago- came out on
top just in front of Nico Landauer of Uruguay and local local Kevin Growney of
San Francisco taking third.
In the gold fleet, 27 racers took
the field and while Wilson Veloso from Paraiba, Brasil had a comfortable
cushion going in to the final day- he was challenged by Jhon Mora from West
Bay, Grand Cayman who took 2 bullets. Stefano Rista from Canada and
Alejandro Climent Hernandez from Valencia, Spain rounded out the top group in
some amazing gold fleet races where any mistake immediately put you back 10
places in the fleet.
Erika Heineken, older sister of
Johnny- was the only girl who qualified for the gold fleet and put forth a huge
effort racing among the men and finishing 29th overall in a hugely competitive
fleet
Full results, photos, videos and
interviews here.
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