Visit Qatar GKA Freestyle Kite World Cup, Fuwairit, QAT, 2023 - Highlights of Day 2

As was forecast, conditions continued to deliver the lighter southerly winds on day two of the Visit Qatar GKA Freestyle Kite World Cup, though a positive start was made to the competition and the line-up for the women’s final is complete. The riding fleet is very compact at this event with just 16 men and eight women. The level amongst the competitors is incredibly high, but with this reduced fleet the men started directly at the quarter final stage, with four heats of four riders. There would be no second chances to stay in the competition, so it was knock out from the beginning for the bottom two in each heat.
As the first event of the season, this event also sees the launch of some adjustments to the Freestyle judging format. The introduction of a new variety score is designed to help inspire new tricks and allows riders more freedom to add extra flow to their heat performances.
In his first comeback event in over a year, Mauritian Louka Pitot pushed four time World Champion Carlos Mario in to second to win the opening heat and claim the highest score of the day too. Swede Nathalie Lambrecht finished with the highest heat score of the day, landing tricks from four different families for an overall score of 28.67.