On day four of the Formula Kite World Championship in Hyères, Lauriane Nolot’s crash near the windward mark of the final race of the afternoon resulted in a multi-rider pile-up.
It was the first day of gold fleet competition after three days of qualifying, so maybe it’s inevitable that the margins for error reduce as the best in the world all converge on the same place on the race course.
When Nolot splashed down, the chasing pack were so closely locked together that there was no room to avoid a pile-up. Jessie Kampman was just far enough back to steer round the melée at the mark. Even by the time Kampman was coming back up to the mark for a second time she saw some riders still swimming.
Among the high profile casualties from the pile-up were Britain’s Ellie Aldridge and Daniela Moroz of the USA.
Nolot managed to extricate herself from the windward mark mess to record a fifth across the line, and maintains the overall lead with a buffer of six points ahead of Aldridge and Kampman, who are tied on points for second and third overall.
Italy’s Riccardo Pianosi made the best possible start to the men’s gold fleet competition, the young Italian winning the first of four races.
Singapore’s Max Maeder was runner-up in the first but followed up with three straight wins to extend his lead at the top of the board. Pianosi’s day continued well with two second places and an eighth which are good enough to lift the Italian into silver medal position with two days to go.
Having won race after race in qualifying, things didn’t go so well in gold fleet today for Axel Mazella FRA who slips to third.
Britain’s Sam Dickinson is 21st and Mattia Maini in 22nd.
Leading WOMEN Gold Fleet (46 entries)
1st FRA Lauriane Nolot – – 4 1 2 -5 – – 18 pts
2nd GBR Eleanor Aldridge – – 1 2 5 (DNC) – – 24 pts
3rd FRA Jessie Kampman – – 2 -4 3 2 – – 24 pts
4th FRA Poema Newland – – -19 7 9 3 – – 49 pts
5th SUI Elena Lengwiler – – -22 3 1 1 – – 58 pts
6th USA Daniela Moroz – – 6 5 22 (DNC) – – 60 pts
7th AUS Breiana Whitehead – – 17 9 7 (DNF) – – 66 pts
8th POL Julia Damasiewicz (U21) – – -21 11 19 8 – – 79 pts
9th ISR Gal Zukerman – – 5 6 8 4 – – 81 pts
10th GBR Lily Young – – 9 -13 6 10 – – 82 pts
Other GBR
15th GBR Madeleine Anderson – – 15 -16 13 9 – – 108 pts
16th GBR Katie Dabson – – 16 15 11 6 – – 112 pts
Leading MEN Gold Fleet (78 entries)
1st SGP Maximilian Maeder (U19) (U21) – – -2 1 1 1 – – 13 pts
2nd ITA Riccardo Pianosi (U21) – – 1 2 2 -8 – – 22 pts
3rd FRA Axel Mazella – – -15 5 5 4 – – 26 pts
4th AUT Valentin Bontus – – -17 7 3 2 – – 32 pts
5th GER Jannis Maus – – 6 4 4 -9 – – 41 pts
6th CRO Martin Dolenc – – 11 -16 13 3 – – 50 pts
7th ITA Lorenzo Boschetti – – 4 3 (DNC) 13 – – 51 pts
8th BRA Bruno Lobo – – -24 24 10 5 – – 57 pts
9th CYP Denis Taradin – – -19 9 18 7 – – 68 pts
10th USA Markus Edegran – – 12 10 9 -15 – – 71 pts
GBR
21st GBR Samuel Dickinson (U21) – – 16 14 -19 19 – – 119 pts
22nd GBR Mattia Maini (U21) – – 14 20 (DNC) 21 – – 122 pts
