Bainbridge finishes in style at Last Chance Regatta

Connor Bainbridge signed off his successful Formula Kite Olympic qualification series at the Last Chance Regatta with gold in the final series.

Poland’s Maks Zakowski and Jan Marciniak, took silver and bronze. Besides Britain and Poland, the USA, Greece and Israel have also qualified for Olympic spots in men’s kiteboarding.

Elena Lengwiler continued her week-long domination of the women’s kiteboarding, the Swiss rider sweeping to victory in first race of the final and sealing the gold medal in imperious style. The two Poles, Damasiewicz and Satrjan, took silver and bronze respectively.

Along with Switzerland and Poland, other qualifiers for Paris 2024 in women’s kiteboarding are Türkey, Austria and Portugal.

Czech sisters Katerina and Barbora Svikova took gold and silver in the three-rider final of the women’s QFoil windsurfing competition on day five of the Last Chance Regatta in the south of France, securing a nation’s spot for Czechia at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games this summer.

In third place in the winner-takes-all final race was Johanna Hjertberg, her bronze medal booking a place for Sweden at the Games. Other nations to qualify an iQFOiL windsurfing places at the end of the Last Chance Regatta are AIN, Türkiye, Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland and Estonia.

In the men’s windsurfing competition Japan’s Makoto Tomizawa turned up the volume when it mattered, flying across the finish line of the final race and securing an Olympic spot for Japan.

Noah Lyons earned a Paris berth for the USA and took the silver medal ahead of Greece’s Vyron Kokkalanis who took bronze and booked his place for Paris.

Other nations now qualified for men’s windsurfing are Lithuania, Hong Kong China, Finland and Slovakia.

This successful Kite qualification by Bainbridge means that Team GB will compete in all ten Olympic sailing events at the Paris Olympics.

Racing continues for other non-qualified fleets, and for the qualified fleets in the Hyeres French Olympic Week.