Qatar Airways GKA Kite World Tour
GKA Kite-Surf World Cup Dakhla
29 September – 06 October, 2024

Spot: Dakhla
Discipline: Kite-surf
Judging Criteria: Best two wave scores from 10 attempts to count. Heats of 22 minutes with 2-minute transitions.

Day Six: 4 October, 2024 (CET -1)

12.58 That’s a wrap from Dakhla for another year. Join us again later in the month in Ibiraquera, Brazil.

12.30 W Final Capucine Delannoy v Kesiane Rodrigues. Brazil’s Kesiane Rodrigues takes the win in Dakhla with superb riding that earned 14.86. That’s her first world cup win of the season. Delannoy rode strongly but she couldn’t quite get what she needed to overhaul the Brazilian’s great surfing.

12.27 Luz takes third place with 12.72, while Derrien finishes in fourth. Great placings for both women. 

12.00 W MF Serena Luz v Clémence Derrien. Luz is comfortably in the lead so far. She found two good sets, with her biggest score so far a 6.33.

11.25 W SF2 Capucine Delannoy v Clémence Derrien. Delannoy makes it through to the final with a strong 6.33 wave. Derrien hunted the swells but didn’t get any joy and goes to the mini-final against Serena Luz.

11.00 W SF1 Serena Luz v Kesiane Rodrigues. Rodrigues gets the win with a 12.47 heat total and goes to the final after she made a slightly better fist of the difficult conditions.

10.15 Good morning. The red flag will be up at 10.58, which means two minutes to get to the start of the first women’s semi-final. We’ve just four heats to go to find out who will be our 2024 Dakhla champions.

Day Five: 3 October, 2024 (CET -1)

19.05 That’s it for today. The conditions did not come back. Be sure to join us again to find out who wins in Dakhla.

17.45 W SF1 Kesiane Rodrigues v Serena Luz. The heat is cancelled as the conditions are not there and the athletes are on standby.

16.42 W R5 H4 Luiza Neto v Capucine Delannoy. Delannoy wins and makes it into the semi-final against Derrien.

16.30 W R5 H3 Astrid Cheylus v Clémence Derrien. Derrien makes her way through to the semi-final.

16.20 W R5 H2 Serena Luz v Camille Losserand. Luz advances in a bit of an upset to make it an all-Brazilian semi-final with Rodrigues.

16.10 W R5 H1 Charlotte Carpentier v Kesiane Rodrigues. Extraordinary heat from Rodrigues. She got to 9.5+ wave scores that took her heat total to 19.57 that takes her to the semis. Carpentier is out.

15.55 W R4 H4 Luiza Neto v Daniela Moreno. The Brazilian Neto goes through to the quarter-final and sends Moreno out.

15.45 W R4 H3 Katie Evans v Astrid Cheylus. Cheylus gets the win with a 10.53 heat score taking her to the quarter-finals and ending Evans’ competition.

15.36 W R4 H2 Serena Luz v Sonja Bunte. Luz chalks up a big heat total of 14.63, with a good 7.33 wave to takes the young Brazilian to the quarter-final at the expense of Bunte.

15.25 W R4 H1 Charlotte Carpentier v Simona Schatzmann. Carpentier advances to Round 5, the quarter final, with a .9.77 heat total while that’s the end of Schatzmann’s run.

14.45 W R3 H4 Astrid Cheylus v Serena Luz v Capucine Delannoy. Delannoy gets the win with two good wave scores and goes to the quarter-final. Luz bags the biggest wave score of the competition, 9.07, and takes second, with Cheylus in third.

14.15 W R3 H3 Clémence Derrien v Simona Schatzmann v Charlotte Carpentier. Derrien gets a big win with a 12.83 heat total and goes to Round 5. Carpentier in second and Moreno in third go again in Round 4.

13.50 W R3 H2 Luiza Neto v Simona Schatzmann v Camille Losserand. World number two Losserand takes the win, but it was a close battle with Neto, who took second. Schatzmann was in third.

13.29 W R3 H1 Katie Evans v Sonja Bunte v Kesiane Rodrigues. Third ranked Rodrigues was a league apart with two 8-point plus waves in the difficult conditions to give her 16.53 total for strong surfing. Evans was second and Bunte third.

12.32 W R2 H2 Astrid Cheylus v Sophia Abreu. Cheylus takes the win and advances to Round 3 in the first upset of the competition.

11.36 W R1 H2 Sophia Abreu v Clémence Derrien. Derrien gets two strong waves to give her a heat total of 11.16 to win over Abreu.

10.40 W R1 H1 Katie Evans v Astrid Cheylus v Luiza Neto. Evans gets the win with a 7.43 total, while Cheylus and Neto will go again Round 2.

10.26 Good morning. The plan today is to run the women’s competition. The first possible start is 10.40.

Day Four: 2 October, 2024 (CET -1)

09.28 Good morning. The plan is to try to complete the wingfoil competition today. We will get back to the women’s Kite-Surf to get as far as possible with that later. Next call for the women is 15.00. Stay tuned.

Day Three: 1 October, 2024 (CET -1)

19.05 That’s it from Dakhla for today. Join us again for the women’s action.

18.35 Final James Carew v Pedro Matos. Carew takes the win in Dakhla, making it back-to-back victories. Carew put a couple big wave scores on the board early in the decider that Matos couldn’t quite match in the end. Matos gets second place, Cozzolino in third place.

18.10 Mini-Final Airton Cozzolino v Gabriel Benetton. Airton Cozzolino takes the win and gets third overall in Dakhla. It was another tight heat and Cozzolino came from behind with almost his last ride of the heat where got a cover-up that earned him 8.2, taking his total to 15.57.

17.28 M SF2 Airton Cozzolino v Pedro Matos. Matos wins a difficult heat chalking to good waves early in the heat for 7.80 and 7.85 that kept him well in front of Cozzolino, the reigning world champion. The Cape Verdean just couldn’t find the waves he needed to get on terms and will go to the mini-final in the battle for the third podium place. Matos goes to the final against Carew.

17.05 M SF1 James Carew v Gabriel Benetton. A little bit of slow semi-final as the swells were few and far between. But both riders worked the faces on offer for all they were worth. It was a tight battle in the end, but Carew just edged out Benetton in the end to book his place in the final.

16.45 M QF4 Gray Foster v Airton Cozzolino. Cozzolino gets the win with massively powered surfing even in the meagre sets on offer. Foster pushed hard and made a good fist of the swells, but Cozzolino was just too strong with a 13.84 heat total.

16.22 M QF3 Sebastian Ribeiro v Pedro Matos. Matos pulls it out of the hat with his very last wave in an incredible heat. The lead changed hands throughout the quarter-final as they went wave for wave. Matos looked as if he had it, but Matos took the win by 0.04 of a point.

16.00 M QF2 Nicola Abadjiev v Gabriel Benetton. Benetton takes the win and goes to the semi-final. It was a close run thing with Abadjiev getting a strong wave right at the end of the heat to close the gap to the Brazilian. But Benetton matched him and got the heat.

15.35 M QF1 Hendrick Lopes v James Carew. Carew was ripping up the waves, which have improved as the tide has dropped. The Australian is the first semi-finalist today after chalking up an 8.67 wave to give him a total of 16.07.

14.50 We’re having a break of 25 minutes before the start of the quarter-finals. Stay tuned.

14.25 M R3 H8 Airton Cozzolino v Theo Demanez. Cozzolino wins to go to the quarter-final. But it was drama right to the end of the heat. Cozzolino dropped his kite, couldn’t relaunch and released it. He came to the beach to get another and went out again just 1 minute and 40 seconds before the buzzer. Demanez had a free run, but Cozzolino had enough on the board, 13.20, to win.

14.16 M R3 H7 Gray Foster v Yaris Dell’omo. Foster makes it into the quarter-finals with 11.73 heat total.

14.00 M R3 H6 Matchu Lopes v Pedro Matos. Matos wins and goes to the quarter-final in the battle of the big hitters. Matos landed a clutch of 7+ scores that were just too good for Lopes on the day.

13.52 M R3 H5 Sebastian Ribeiro v Woodley Hall. Ribeiro was on fire, scoring the biggest wave of the contest for 9.4 and a combination of 18.10. It gave him a convincing win over Hall.

13.36 M R3 H4 Gabriel Benetton v Ghali Khtour. Benetton sweeps aside Khtour to also go to the quarter-finals.

13.18 M R3 H3 Nicola Abadjiev v Ismail Adarzane. The Bulgarian Abadjiev just gets the win over Adarzane by a tiny margin, advancing to the quarter finals.

13.00 M R2 H4 Ghali Khtour v Felipe Monnerat. Khatour takes the win in the rerun of the heat.

12.55 At the end of the current heat we will have a rerun of R2 H4 between Ghali Khtour and Felipe Monnerat for 10 minutes.

12.45 M R3 H3 James Carew v Mohamed Ali Beqqali. Carew goes through to the next round with several big wave scores that included a 7.60. Unfortunately Beqqali was not scored for his waves as he was not riding the correct colour of lycra shirt.

12.30 M R3 H1 Manim Maji v Hendrick Lopes. Lopes advances with a score of 13.37 that included a 7.07 wave score that sends the local rider Maji out.

12.20 M R2 H8 Clement Roseyro v Theo Demanez. Demanez gets the win with a score of 10.94 over his countryman Roseyro in a close heat.

12.10 MR2 H7 Yaris Dell’omo v Jordy Sanca. Dell’omo takes the win with a 5.66 heat and sends Sanca out of the competition.

12.00 M R2 H6 Matchu Lopes v Noah Nicolas. Lopes gets the biggest wave score of the day so far with a 8.17 that gives him the win over Nicolas who comes to the end of the road.

11.50 M R2 H5 Charly Martin v Woodley Hall. The Australian Hall gets the win and advances over Charly Martin. Both found decent waves, but Hall just had the edge.

11.40 M R2 H4 Ghali Khtour v Felipe Monnerat. The Moroccan Khtour gets the win when he found a couple of waves that sent Monnerat out.

11.30 M R2 H3 Simao Bilro v Ismail Adarzane. Adarzane advances with a heat total of 8.50, while Bilro is out.

11.19 We’re running an overlap system to try to get through the competition as the forecast is not promising. Once the first heat has reached the 10-minute mark in the 20-minute heat, the next heat joins them on the water. The first heat riders still have priority, which reverts to the second heat riders once the first heat leaves the water.

11.15 M R2 H2 Mohamed Ali Beqqali v Kelton Lopes. Beqqali uses his local knowledge to the full to take a big win with a 13.40 heat total, including a 7.53 for a huge wave. For Lopes that’s the end of his run.

10.55 M R2 H1 Hendrick Lopes v Luca Duffin. Lopes makes it through with two solid waves, while that’s the end of the road for Duffin.

10.20 M R1 H1 Mounim Maji v Kelton Lopes v Charly Martin. This is a rerun of the opening heat. Maji advances with two strong wave scores to give a heat total of 11.70, just ahead of Martin on 11.36. Lopes was third.

10.00 M R1 H8 Ghali Khtour v Jordy Sanca v Airton Cozzolino. The heat is on. Cozzolino manages to find some waves and takes the win with a heat total of 13.10. Khtour and Sanca go forward to fight it out in Round 2.

09.40 The plan for today is to run only the Kite-Surf contest, depending on the conditions. The waves have improved slightly. First up we’ll restart that R1 H8 and then rerun R1 H1 because of a protest. We’re looking at a FPS at 10.00.

Day Two: 30 September, 2024 (CET -1)

19.45 M R1 H8 Ghali Khtour v Jordy Sanca v Airton Cozzolino. The heat was cancelled as the wind died and kites were falling out of the sky. That’s it for today. Join us again tomorrow.

19.21 M R1 H7 Simao Bilro v Gray Foster v Theo Demanez. Super-tough conditions out there. Small waves and sets that few and far between. Foster banked a couple of decent wave scores early in the heat that were enough to give him a 9.30 total and the win. Bilro got second and Demanez third and will fight for their places in Round 2.

18.45 M R1 H6 Mohamed Ali Beqqali v Woodley Hall v Pedro Matos. The heat is on shortly. Last year’s Dakhla winner Matos showed that he has even the difficult conditions dialled. He racked up two strong waves to score an 8.0 and a 7.0 to take the win. Beqqali took second with Hall in third to send both to Round 2.

17.50 The FPS is slipping at the moment as we wait for the wind and swell. Next possible start is 18.15.

15.45 Good afternoon. We’re are just about to have a brief skippers’ meeting at 16.00 with a first possible start at 17.00.

10.20 Good morning. Right now, the wingfoilers are up in Dakhla. The hope is to get more Kite-Surf heats away later in the day. Stay tuned.

Day One: 29 September, 2024. (CET -1)

20.05 That’s a wrap for Day 1. Join us again tomorrow for more action in Dakhla.

19.40 M R1 H5 Noah Nicolas v Sebastian Ribeiro v Hendrick Lopes. Ribeiro takes a big win with an 8.50 wave score that added to his strong heat total, ahead of Lopes in second and Nicolas in third.

19.22 M R1 H4 Ismail Adarzane v Clément Roseyro v Gabriel Benetton. Benetton is another athlete on the up after his second place in Sylt. He got his nose in front of Roseyro, who closed the gap near the end of the heat to take a good second, with the Moroccan Adarzane not far behind in third.

18.55 M R1 H3 Felipe Monnerat v Yaris Dell’omo v Nicola Abadjiev. Abadjiev continues the form he showed in Germany to get the win and advance to Round 3. Dell’omo and Monnerat live to fight again in Round 2.

18.37 M R1 H2 Luca Duffin v James Carew v Matchu Lopes. Carew, winner of the last round in Sylt, Germany, opens with a big heat right off the bat. He gets an 8.57 for one wave that easily helps him to the win over Lopes, who wasn’t far adrift in second. Duffin gets third, but lives to fight again. 

18.15 M R1 H1 Mounim Maji v Kelton Lopes v Charly Martin. The local Moroccan rider Maji gets a great first win over the experienced Martin in second and Lopes in third.

17.07 The riders’ briefing is set to start at 17.40, with a First Possible Start at 18.10. Join us then on the Livestream.

12.30 We’ve just done registration. The Kite-Surfers are on hold and we may get the first heats away later. But first the wingfoilers are on the water. Stayed tuned for further updates.