The sound of wind whistling through the palm-lined shores of the hotel was like an alarm clock for riders and crew starting the final day of competition in the Red Sea. Surprisingly the wind was even stronger than forecast predicted with some locals predicting even a large sandstorm headed Soma Bay's way. The 9 AM briefing informed riders that the wind had been measured at 25-43knots and that the comp area would be adjusted to accommodate the more offshore direction wind compared to previous days. Thankfully, the sandstorm held back and the event continued as planned.
Liam Whaley giving his best
The men were the first to test the area with Micheal Shitzhoffer and Jerry Van Derkopp doing their best to make something out of the tough conditions, from there thankfully the conditions only improved with the wind swinging more side-shore making it less gusty and averaging a solid 25-30knots the whole day.
The double elimination was exciting to watch with the strong gusty wind giving riders a chance to throw some big tricks and some even bigger crashes. Everyone was riding well for the conditions but it would be right to say that the final day was Liam Whaley's day. Whaley had a methodical approach to heats doing only what he needed to win but in a way that provided him with some of the highest scoring heats of the day. The young Spaniard came all the way from dead last position, through 8 heats including the Brazilians (Carlos Mario, Eudazio Dasilva and Alex Neto) to come up against the winner of Saturday's single elimination Christophe Tack.
Whaleys front blind mobes amongst other tricks were some of the nicest seen in competition so far and there is no doubt that this kid still has a bright future ahead of him. However, it was once again to be Christophe Tack to take over. Tack didn’t ride as good as days previous, but he did enough to take the win and narrowly defeat Whaley by a 4 margin. Tack has also now won three events this year and has come second at another, showing that he’s well on his way to winning the world title this year.
Podium winners
All images are courtesy of PKRA.
Source: http://www.internationalkiteboarding.org
