GKA Freestyle World Cup Cumbuco | Super Kite Brazil | Day Three

Report: Gemma Hamaini   All photos: Svetlana Romantsova

The action continued in Cumbuco, Brazil, as we progressed through the semi-finals, and crowned our new Men’s GKA Freestyle World Champion.

It was a rainy and stormy start as we headed into Day Three of action in Cumbuco, Brazil. The full Men’s and Women’s Eliminations were completed in 16-18 knot winds, showcasing the World’s very best freestyle talent, and with a new World Champion crowned.

Women’s Elimination 

Women’s Round 4 was first in sequence, where Nathalie Lambrecht advanced to the semi-finals together with former World Champion Karolina Winkoska. 

Rita Arnaus has been unstoppable since the start of this event, and her heat today for the semi-final 1 was another reflection of all of the hard work and effort she has been putting in her training. She advanced to the finals with a solid overall score of 26.07 points, together with Nathalie Lambrecht from Sweden who had a close fight with Pippa van Iersel for that much-desired spot in the finals, which is the first final ever for the Swedish rider. 

Semi-final 2 saw another dominating performance from Mikaili Sol, who blasted right into the heat landing a Slim 5 and scoring 9.50 points. She locked down her spot in tomorrow’s finals, and will be joined by former World Champion Karolina Winkowska, whose return to freestyle competition has been well rewarded. Karolina gave us a glimpse of the talent and style that gave her 3 x World Championship titles, and it will be exciting to see her performance in tomorrow’s finals. This unfortunately left another former World Champion, Bruna Kajiya, eliminated from the competition as she struggled to land various trick attempts, costing her valuable points. 

The battle right now for the World Championship Title is between Rita Arnaus and Mikaili Sol.

Men’s Elimination

Round 5 was full of surprises, as only two riders from each heat could advance to the semi-finals. Heat 1 was all about the Brazilian super-duo – Multiple World Champion Carlos Mario and Manoel Soares, who boosted trick after trick, with Carlos winning the heat and clearing the way to the semi-finals. Manoel Soares dropped an outstanding 9.33 Heart Attack 7 to finish things off. 

Heat 2 continued with another strong Brazilian performance, this time for Erick Anderson, who pulled out a great overall score of 31.7 points, securing his spot in the semi-finals. The drama however was high between the remaining three riders of the heat, as Jeremy Burlando fought hard in order to remain in the competition and still have a shot at the World Championship title. Sadly, his final Slim 7 left him short of points, and Juan Rodriguez from Colombia advanced over him. Juan has been riding well since the start of the competition, and this heat really solidified his position as one of the top current athletes. One of the major upsets of the day saw the current World Champion Valentin Rodriguez eliminated from the competition in Round 5, a strong contrast from his winning performance here two years ago. 

Gianmaria Coccoluto from Italy showed significant evolution in his riding for Heat 3, where he advanced to the semi-finals joined by Louka Pitot from Mauritius, who performed well despite the fact that he is suffering with a foot injury.

All focus shifted to Heat 4, where Arthur Guillebert needed to place himself in the top three in order to be crowned World Champion. This was not an easy feat given the top contenders he was facing. Maxime Chabloz dominated the heat opening with a massive score of 9.03 points. Arthur struggled to find his focus, and dipped in and out of 4th position, but on his final trick attempt, he managed to catapult himself into 2nd place, allowing him to claim the 2021 Freestyle World Champion title, a well-deserved first for this well-rounded French rider. 

Men’s Semi-Finals
It was an intense match-up of powerful riders for semi-final 1. The wind conditions were lighter than the previous rounds, with the men riding 13-14m kites. The level was extremely high throughout with each rider throwing down powered trick after trick, each trying to go harder than the other. Carlos Mario was absolutely on fire, proving that he is back in action and fully recovered from his previous injury. Always receiving immense support from the public here at his homespot of Cumbuco, his riding today was a classic Bebe performance that reminded us of why he has won so many World Titles in the past. He advances to tomorrow’s finals, and is joined by fellow Brazilian Erick Anderson, who came in 2nd close behind him, landing all but one of his trick attempts. Arthur Guillebert, our new World Champion, unfortunately, crashed 4 of his 7 attempts, and could not advance further in this event. Louka Pitot also struggled during this heat with his current injury that made it hard for him to successfully land all of his attempts.

The wind, unfortunately, dropped during the second men’s semi-final, but the action will be back on tomorrow, with the first possible start called for 12:30 (GMT-3). Today we crowned our new Men’s Freestyle World Champion, but we will have to wait until tomorrow to see who will be our new Women’s World Champion. The event will continue with the men’s and women’s finals, so we can see who will become King and Queen of Cumbuco! Re-watch the Livestream of day 3

Be sure to follow our live-stream, live-ticker, and live-scoring on our website: www.gkakiteworldtour.com/live/

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