The Finals | GKA Kite-Surf World Cup Dakhla 2022 Day Three

THE PERFECT TIME TO PEAK

Carew and Delannoy turn up the heat at just the right moment to defeat all comers in Morocco

Thursday 29th September
Westpoint, Dakhla, Morocco
Photos: Svetlana Romantsova

Westpoint once again continued to deliver hour upon hour of contestable wave conditions on day three of the GKA Kite-Surf World Cup Dakhla.

Re-joining the competition at the quarter final stage for both the men and women, this was always going to be a day of tense action as the first wave event on this year’s Qatar Airways GKA Kite World Tour.

The wave pulses peaked and lulled throughout the day.

Taking those opportunities was key.

WOMEN:

An early casualty of the lighter offshore conditions was Brazilian Maria Kesiane Rodrigues who had excelled in yesterday’s bigger afternoon waves. Canada’s Frances Kelly made her waves count best that quarter final

Frances then kept her semi final scores consistent against Johana Catarina Edin and was suddenly catapulted into the final to meet Capucine Delannoy.

On the other side of the draw, in an all-French tie, Capucine had overcome the very impressive debutante, Zoe Bazile in the semis.

The best and most compact carving performers had made it to the women’s final. The wind picked up and after coming into the beach to drop down a kite size, Delannoy then took advantage of the extra control, finding the peeling sections to her liking, repeatedly firing down the line with power to cement her first win in Morocco, 15.72 points to 10.22.

GKA KITE-SURF WORLD CUP DAKHLA 2022
WOMEN’S FINAL RESULTS:

1 Capucine Delannoy (FRA)
2 Frances Kelly (CAN)
3 Johanna-Catarina Edin

MEN

The men’s quarter finals were littered with what could have been match-ups worthy of a final.

Most striking was Airton Cozzolino V Sebastian Ribeiro.

In a heat rare on big wave opportunities, the best swell fell to Ribeiro, who mechanically dissected every section.

In in his livestream interview, Sebastian was evidently relieved to overcome the biggest hurdle on his mental road map to the final.

“Airton was the buy to beat in this event and it was an honour to go against him and win. Step by step to the final.”

Local hopes were finally crushed when Mohamed-Ali Beqqali’s incredible performances at his home spot finally relented in the semi final.

Beqqali lost out to Ribeiro, who was continuing to look a sure bet to reach the final. The Brazilian paid tribute to the Moroccan rider who’d impressed everyone.

Meanwhile, current world champion James Carew was starting to turn up the heat, despatching Matt Maxwell in the quarters and then a typically fluid Matchu Lopes in the semis.

Australian Carew had given little emotion away in any interview, repeating simply that he was just “here to fight”.

And fight he did in the final against Ribeiro.

Mid sized waves pervaded the heat and the final became a question of whose legs would last longest as each rider relentlessly cranked out turns and threw buckets of spray.

James was merging full power surfing with elements of freestyle, landing two clean airs on the inside, right in front of the judges.

Sebastian found some high scoring rides of his own but late in the heat found himself in a combo situation, needing two high 9 point rides to get ahead.

As the best champions do, Carew had peaked at just the right time in the competition’s final heat achieving the highest score of the contest with 18.54 from two waves (9.47 & 9.07).

Sebastian has gifted us some of the best wave riding moments throughout this competition, but when it really counted it was the Australian who out-punched his team mate, utilising his immense grunt and grit to muscle his way to the top.