Lauriane Nolot of France and Riccardo Pianosi of Italy are the champions of Poetto Beach in a dominant final-day performance at the Sardinia Kiteboard Grand Slam.
After four days of qualifying, the Sardinia Kiteboard Grand Slam came down to a series of knockout finals. The offshore Mistral breeze was again blowing hard, between 18 and 23 knots from the north-west.
In the women, Britain’s Ella Geiger and Katie Dabson went from the quarter final to the semi final where they joined three more contenders: Switzerland’s Elena Lengwiler, Israel’s Maya Ashkenazi and Britain’s Lily Young. Ashkenazi and Geiger won through to claim their places in the final, with the two French riders, Lauriane Nolot and her training partner Lysa Caval.
Nolot’s pure speed and power were too much to overcome. The French rider tacked into the lead at the top mark and was never challenged from there, winning the only race of the final and adding the Sardinia title to a season that has already brought her the European and World titles. Caval took second overall, with Ashkenazi third.
Britain’s Ella Geiger finished fourth, Lily Young fifth and Katie Dabson seventh.
In the men’s quarter-final, Italy’s Flavio Marx and Israel’s Zohar Haruvi qualified for the semi-final, where the USA’s Noah Runciman and Marx won through to join Riccardo Pianosi and Czech rider Vojtech Koska in the Grand Final.
For the three challengers, Pianosi could not be allowed to win the first race. Pianosi’s superior speed carried him into the lead until he crashed. Pianosi, now in third, was first to gybe for the finish. Narrowly in front of the American, Pianosi surged across the line and punched the air in celebration.
Koska took second, despite his costly start, thanks to the Czech rider’s stronger qualifying scores earlier in the week, with a jubilant Marx third to give Italy two of the three podium places. Runciman, the All American hero of the port-tack starts, had to settle for fourth.
Britain’s Sam Dickinson finished fifth.
Sardinia Kiteboard Grand Slam Final Leaderboards
