KTA Philippines >> Final Report

Boracay provided the KTA Philippines tour stop with a touch of everything you would want for a top-level kiteboard event. Four days of great competition, in a stunning tropical location with parties, kiters fashion shows and ‘Atihan’ parades added to complete the mix.

Throughout the competition the wind conditions did vary, but in the end the KTA was able to complete each of the IKA sanctioned disciplines and even add a local speed event as requested by the local host organisers at the Hangin Kiteboard Centre.  So in the end a great result for the riders given the forecasts that were set before the event began.

Along with the good conditions it was great to have a number of
pro-riders along for this round of the KTA, including Susi Mai who was along to open the event and run a pre-competition girls kite clinic as well as sitting in on the mike to commentate on the action. Also in action at the event were Mallory de la Villemarque, Florian Daubos, Bobo Corniel and Robin Snuggs mixing it out on the water with the rest of the KTA riders. So with an entry of 59 riders from 20 countries the stage was set for a cracking forth round of competition.

Following the competition registration the event kicked off with freestyle and the first upset of the competition as one the tour’s current equal first place riders Ozone’s own Yo from Thailand was narrowly beaten in a hard fought heat with Mallory de la Villemarque. This was Yo’s first meeting of a full time pro-rider in competition, so good experience for the future and he could take heart from the battle he gave Mallory throughout the heat. The afternoon continued steady rather than strong wind which did not give the riders as much scope as they would have liked, but still some very nice heats took place showing not only the talents of the KTA tour regulars, but also the new names that would be featuring as the tour stop continued.

An 8am start brought in day two for what was expected to be only a morning wind, but in the end it stuck around all day, so with the riders well powered up it was a big day of passing, mega looping and combinations! Once again upsets were in store as local favourite and fellow KTA tour leader Ken Nacor went out to Robin Snuggs, giving the remaining leading tour riders a chance perhaps to improve their overall ranking places if they could perform well. Turkey’s Sedat Celenk and Karem Balik were showing good form as were Vietnam’s Lai Hong Phi and Doque Delos Santos from the Philippines.
Other new faces also worth noting in the mix and putting in some great heats were Jeyde Dolaera (Chok), Anton Pegov and our youngest KTA rider to date at the age of 12 Stefano Genugi who was to make it a lot harder than expected for Bobo to get through his heat with him. The two heats of the day though would have to go to the fight for the first eliminator final between Mallory and Florian, showing why these guys are pro-riders with Mallory beating Florian to reach the final with Robin. This final clash in the first round of the eliminator left Robin on top, but not without some question marks as Mallory managed to down his kite for part of the heat.

The women’s freestyle followed on and maintained the closely fought competitions of the men. The end results saw Kathryn Borgwardt
and Carla Del Moral in the final, but neither of them had it easy from the other girls with Nuria Goma and local Boracay rider Danielle Gonzalez in particular putting up a fight with some great riding. The final battle between Carla and Kathryn resulted in a win for Kathryn following the judges split decision.

The following course racing was to see women competing in their races and forty starting for the guys. The riders racing standards in the KTA are clearly improving as are the number of specialist race boards now being used, resulting in things getting much faster than on the first KTA tour stop, with more riders also finishing each race cleanly.

Following the first series of races Turkeys Tanner Aykurt took both the first positions giving him a strong lead for the tour stop in the men’s fleet, with Kathryn and Nuri both winning one each for the girls in a repeat of what had happened between them at the Vietnam stop.

The third and fourth days of the KTA Philippines were a bit more flaky with the winds changing and dropping out a bit quicker than everyone would have liked.  But there was never a dull moment and the riders dug deep to pull out the winning moves in each round, even throwing in a few classic old school moves to fill the lulls that appeared in the odd heat or two.

The outcome of all this saw Sedat and Phi still progressing well, with Yo coming back strongly from the losers side of the eliminator and looking like he might force his way back into the top positions for a second crack at the final. However, it was to be another world pro-rider Florian who halted the charge in another closely fought heat, putting him into overall third position for the event and leaving the grand final once again between Mallory and Robin. Both riders again needed all their experience as the heat began well enough wind wise for all the unhooked moves to come out of the bag, but then as the final continued things slowed down and the riders had to again look to the alternatives to maximise their performance. The battle went Robin’s way, this time without any doubts, giving a popular result to a great final.

It was then for the course racers to put up the final show of the day, this time with the course direction reverse to upset any pre-set plans on lines that the riders might have had from the first races. Once again in the men’s fleet Tanner dominated coming home well before his closest rivals Deivis Maciulis and Yo back with determination for a podium place in the racing, who finished in second and third positions respectively.

For the women the battle between Nuria and Kathryn was to continue right to the finish line in the last race of the day. The win looked like it was going Kathryn’s way as she took the better line towards the finish, but Nuri sneaked it back after under-shooting the line to tuck back in just in front of Kathryn for the overall number one slot in the KTA Philippines women’s course racing.

So now you have read about it all go and checkout the event pictures, full results and video’s for the KTA Philippines video at the official KTA website www.kiteboardtour.asia


KTA Philippines Results

Freestyle Men’s

1 Robin Snuggs
2 Mallory de la Villeque
3 Florian

Freestyle Women’s

1 Kathryn Borgwardt
2 Carla Del Moral
3 Nuria Gorma

Course Race Men’s

1 Tanner Aykurt
2 Deivis Maceiulis
3 Narapichat Pudla Yo

Course Race Women’s

1 Nuria Goma
2 Kathyn Borgwardt
3 Carla Del Moral

Speed Men’s

1 Angel Parzhuber
2 Tony Heiss
3 Bobo Corniel

Speed Women’s

1 Candice Shedley
2 Lizel Tio
3 Jannike Stav