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| The winner’s podium for the KTA twin tip course racing. (L-R) Nguyen Ngoc Kim (Vietnam) second place, Ken Nacor (Philipines) first, Lai Hong Phi (Vietnam) third - Photo: Alexandru Baranescu |
Over 100 competitors from 23 nations had waited for the wind for four almost windless days since the event had started last Wednesday.
Except for two races that were held in 15 knot winds late Friday afternoon, the KTA events were all held Sunday when the forecast winds finally arrived to the resort town that has earned an international reputation as the mecca of Vietnam kitesurfing.
“It couldn’t happen any better. The winds started early and went to the end of the day. We got all the results. It was a godsend,” said KTA tour organizer Willy Kerr adding the results were very important to competitors for world rankings.
A 16-year-old Japanese girl, Aya Oshima, beat last year’s tour champion, Kathrin Borgwardt from Germany, to win the freestyle in the women’s category. Borgwardt won the women’s course racing.
In another upset, last year’s Asian Champion, Thai kitesurfer, Narapichit Pudla, was beaten by the Japanese champion, Hiro Nakano, in the men’s freestyle.
After an uneventful week, Sunday’s big crowds were treated to some close-to-the shore wave riding from the freestylers as they played in the dumping Mui Ne shore break outside Wax nightclub.
In the men’s course racing, where kitesurfers use specialized racing boards, Heikki Gross from Estonia beat Tayner Aykurt in second place from Turkey who won out of the Asians. Vietnam’s Nguyen Ngoc Kim came sixth.
Kim came second in the twin tip course racing division. He was beaten by Ken Nacor from the Philipines. Kim’s team mate, Lai Hong Phi, came third.
Lai Hong Phi is the only Vietnamese in the KTA who has world rankings, ranked number 113 at the end of last year. Both Kim and Phi are fully sponsored to travel to all the rounds in this year’s KTA.
So far, 2011 rounds one and two were in China and Turkey with the next rounds in Thailand, the Philippines, and Korea.
