| Aaron Hadlow wins the 2009 PKRA Mondial Du Vent France |
| Tuesday, 14 April 2009 10:54 |
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The third day of the Mondial Du Vent 2009 started again with cold weather and light rain. The mandatory skippers meeting was held right on schedule at 09:00h but due to the high winds, there was a decision to postpone the start to let the winds subside a little. A decision to switch between starting with the women from yesterday’s postponed heat and starting with the men caused a little confusion for Kevin Langeree (Naish, NED) and Sebastien Garat (RRD, FRA) who weren’t able to check back at the announced time of 10:30h to hear the switch in plans. As a result, the two riders missed their respective heats by several minutes in the singles semi-final round which started at 10:45h. The action-packed, edge-of-your-seat event ensued but unfortunately for Tom Hebert (Airush, New Caledonia), who wasn’t able to duplicate his strong performance yesterday lost to a fired-up Youri Zoon (Slingshot, NED) who unleashed a ton of moves in the 13th heat. The schedule change enabled Reno Romeu (North, BRA) to secure enough moves for the win against a late Kevin Langeree who came storming out but crashed a few landings early on. Likewise, a late Seb Garat lost to Alex Pastor (Naish, ESP) in the 14th heat while Zoon and Romeu went head to head in the 15th heat with the former winning with higher technical difficulty score and more powered moves. Pastor took the third podium position, out-classing Romeu with more height and powered moves, landing a s-mobe, mobe 5, back to blind, s-bend to blind and kiteloop. Aaron Hadlow (Flexifoil, GBR) however, was a man on a mission. He started off his heat with a win against Petr Tyuskevich (Flexifoil, RUS) with a lot of his signature moves. He then busted out a new wake style move in the 15th heat against Pastor. Hadlow landed a Bel Air (air tantrum) to blind with an air pass for the very first time in a competition. Along with several other technical and powered moves, the PKRA World Champion easily moved to the final round against Zoon. In a closely-fought heat, Hadlow once again went huge and technical while Zoon went a little more for power. Hadlow got through and took a 3-2 win with a mobe, blind judge, hasselhoff, s-bend to blind, shifty 3, tantrum, and a kiteloop-backloop with aerial pass while Zoon landed a blind judge with aerial handle pass, back to blind air pass, non-inverted slim, kiteloop-backloop and a front mobe. The men’s double elimination started right off where the singles ended and there was no break between the two events which was at approximately 14:00h. The doubles elimination round concluded at 19:45h with the wind, even though up and down in intensity remained strong through the finals. The men were on their 7’s while the women were on their 5’s and 6’s for the most part. Doubles Event The usual faces worked their way up the rankings in the men’s doubles to get up to the final spots. Sam Light (Naish, GBR) kited well, knocking out Randy Hereman (F-One, NED) in the 25th heat with a 313, non-inverted slim, blind judge, back to blind air pass and raley to wrapped. Meanwhile, Aussie Andy Yates (Slingshot) finally got his act together in the cold and windy condition to beat Polish Victor Borsuk (Naish) in the second set of the 26th heat. A blind judge, hasselhoff, s-bend to blind with air pass, 313, mobe to wrapped and slim sealed the win for the man from Down Under. Unfortunately for Yates, Langeree was out steaming and was bent on capturing a spot in the finals, gave no chance to the Aussie champ to climb up the ladder and took him out in the 28th heat. Garat also defeated Portas in the 29th heat as a way of fixing the morning’s missed chance, performed quite well in the heat but eventually shared the same luck as Yates and was defeated by a charging Langeree in the 31st heat. Two more riders in the person of Romeu and Pastor succumbed to the intensity and riding skills of the Dutch champion in the next two heats. Outclassed by Langeree both in technicality and power, Romeu had to settle for 5th place overall while a 3-2 judges decision put Pastor in 4th place overall, loosing to Langeree who had more variation and cleaner execution. It took fellow Dutch rider Zoon to stop Kevin from his tracks. Obviously tired from the series of heats and having to really kite with his A-game against Zoon, Langeree crashed several important moves and struggled with his usually solid repertoire of tricks. Well-rested and pump up for such a high finish after a long time away from the competition, Zoon never left anything for chance and landed a bunch of powered and technical moves to meet Hadlow in the finals. However, there was no need for a second final round as Hadlow proved what a World Champion he really is by taking a 5-0 win against Zoon. The five-time champ kicked off the 2009 season in perfect style, packing his bag of tricks with a blind judge with aerial handle pass, s-bend to blind with air pass, back to blind air pass, front mobe, regular and switch slim/mobe/hasselhoff, huge kiteloops and the new bel air to blind airpass. In the women’s events Angela Peral (North, ESP) took the win against Bruna Kajiya (Best, BRA) in the 7th heat as the ladies continued from yesterday’s postponed event. The Brazilian rider however, managed to secure the 3rd podium spot by defeating Johara Sykes-Davies (Flexifoil, GBR) in the loosers final. World Champ Gisela Pulido still proved to be the one to beat in the women’s division by winning the singles elimination against Peral with a blind judge, raley and front roll. Kajiya however, gave Pulido a run for her money and told a different story in the doubles event. The Brazilian champ stopped Joanna Litwin (Nobile, POL) in the 17th heat before taking out Peral in the 18th with a blind judge, s-bend and front roll. She then faced Pulido in the finals, landing several handle pass moves plus winning with a lot more variation and power. With Pulido looking out of sorts and crashing several tricks in the second final event, Kajiya homed in for the kill and landed a blind judge, s-bend to blind, raley to wrapped, back to blind and back to toeside, winning with a lot more variation and a higher technical difficulty score. Singles Event Results: Men: Women: Doubles Event Results: Men: Women:
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