Sophia Abreu (BRA) V Maria Kinkina (BUL)
Battle of the newcomers proved a pretty stylish affair with both riders cutting clean and repeated hacks down the line. The scores were really tight throughout, but in the end, and probably fair on balance from what we saw throughout the whole single elimination, Kinkina snuck her way ahead of the Brazilian onto the last step of the podium at her first GKA event! Look out for these two ladies over the coming months. They’ve take their surfing abilities into kiting and with some more competition experience, we hope to see them challenging Jalou in the wave stakes more closely soon!
RESULT:
3rd place women’s single elimination: Maria Kinkina (BUL) 6.7
4th place women’s single elimination: Sophia Abreu (BRA) 6.33
HEAT 13A R3 – (Quarter final)
Jalou Langeree (NED) V Ninja Ricot (MRU / GER)
When you come to Mauritius, you always have to beat Ninja Ricot if you want to win the crown. Formerly Ninja Bichler, she was the 2016 GKA Kite-Surf World Cup Mauritius Champion and the 2012 winner when the KSP ran the tour here, so is the undisputed queen of waves on this island.
The first seven waves each rushed by in this heat, it was action packed. With seven minutes remaining the score was 15.54 to 14.1 in Jalou’s favour. If Ninja could get one more 7 point score, to match Jalou’s 2 x 7s she’d be right there.
Jalou slotted her highest score of 7.8 on her ninth wave after a steady and consistent barrage of great scores, mostly over the 6.5 mark throughout. Ninja wasn’t far behind, but her scores for each wave were some way below those of Jalou’s, but it’s just two waves that count, so the actual score remained close with three minutes left on the clock: 15.77 for Jalou and 14.1 to Ninja.
At the end of the heat the wave count was 14 to Jalou and 12 to Ninja – very respectable, and second only to themselves in their previous heats on day six. Jalou commented that this was one of the best heats of her career – lots of respect between these two.
Jalou won went through to the semi-finals: 15.77
Ninja will return in the double eliminations coming over the next couple of days: 14.1
Congratulations to all 19 women involved in the event – they will all get another chance in the doubles. Find the results for all heats on the Kite-Surf live page, and for a more detailed wave breakdown, here on the livescore site.