Day 1 of the 2024 Formula Kite European Championship on the saltwater lagoon of Mar Menor in Spain.
Poema Newland of France tops the women’s leaderboard after a 1, 12, 2, scoreline with 5 pts, and in the men Valentin Bontus of Austria is tied with Riccardo Pianosi of Italy on 2 pts.
This event is very much about individual selection for the Paris Olympics for many of the competitors, but for the British, with the women’s selection already done (Elie Aldridge), and the men not qualified, it is purely European title glory.
In the women Aldridge (5, 1, 4) is in third, with Madeleine Anderson (5, 1, 5) fourth, Katie Dabson (1, 4, 8) seventh and Lily Young (10, 3, 3) in ninth – a powerful position of four Brits in the top ten.
In the men the scene is not so strong, with just Connor Bainbridge (4, 2) in sixth, and then Arthur Brown (11, 12) in 33rd, and Samuel Dickinson (17, 9) in 36th.
Qualifying continues on Wednesday with stronger wind expected, and stronger still in the latter part of the week.
Women 2024 Formula Kite Europeans (51 entries)
1st FRA 98 Poema Newland – – 1 2 2 – – 5 pts
2nd ISR 87 Gal Zukerman – – 2 2 3 – – 7 pts
3rd GBR 154 Eleanor Aldridge – – 5 1 4 – – 10 pts
4th GBR 172 Madeleine Anderson – – 5 1 5 – – 11 pts
5th AUT 26 Alina Kornelli – – 3 6 2 – – 11 pts
6th FRA 131 Lauriane Nolot – – 4 7 1 – – 12 pts
7th GBR 161 Katie Dabson – – 1 4 8 – – 13 pts
8th POL 162 Julia Damasiewicz (U21) – – 4 7 4 – – 15 pts
9th GBR 110 Lily Young – – 10 3 3 – – 16 pts
10th FRA 95 Chloe Revil – – 7 3 7 – – 17 pts
Men 2024 Formula Kite Europeans (86 entries)
1st AUT Valentin Bontus – – 1 1 – – 2 pts
1st ITA Riccardo Pianosi (U21) – – 1 1 – – 2 pts
3rd SGP Maximilian Maeder (U21) (U19) – – 2 1 – – 3 pts
4th ITA Lorenzo Boschetti – – 2 2 – – 4 pts
5th FRA Axel Mazella – – 3 2 – – 5 pts
6th GBR Connor Bainbridge – – 4 2 – – 6 pts
7th GER Florian Gruber – – 4 3 – – 7 pts
8th USA Markus Edegran – – 3 4 – – 7 pts
9th MON Alexander Ehlen – – 5 3 – – 8 pts
10th GER Jannis Maus – – 4 4 – – 8 pts
