A cloudy, rainy and windless day turned out to be dazzling and beautiful for the newly crowned young World Champion after eight fast paced races of the Medal Series in the Formula Kite Men and the A’s Youth Foil fleets, and one single race for the Formula Kite Women. It all came down to the female sailor who had been leading the series for the whole week to defending her position and conquering the World title: Julia Damasiewicz (POL) in the Formula Kite Women.
A long waiting game and some suspense ashore among the 65 athletes and the organizers at the Hang Loose Beach in Gizzeria, Italy, for an interminable morning characterized by storms passing in the area and light and super shifty wind. When at around 1pm a steady breeze started blowing from north-west and the clouds opened to blue sky in that direction, everyone’s excitement was palpable and less than an hour later the first races of the day were underway. It was Medal Series time for the Formula Kite Men and the A’s Youth Foil top 14 riders and in a wink racing had resumed.
After the conclusion of the two Medal Series' the Race Committee rolled straight into the remaining last races for the rest of the fleets. The first Formula Kite Women's race was just concluded when the thunderstorms around the area started to close in, bringing the competition to an end. Magdalena Woyciechowska (POL) took the bullet, but there was very little she could have done today to grab the title from Julia Damasiewicz – second in today’s race – who claimed 13 bullets in a series of 17 races to become the 2021 Formula Kite U19 World Champion. The whole Polish female podium is complete with Nina Arcis in third.
“I am super happy, I mean, winning the World Championship is really something” said Julia Damasiewicz in almost a trembling voice. “ Gizzeria is a beautiful spot with a very stable wind, which made it possible to make maximum number of races for each day of regatta. Through all the comps I used every size of kite I registered, and every single one worked great for me! I also felt very well prepared and I think that was one of the reasons why I kited so steadily everything went as it supposed. 13 bullets out of 17 races put me on first place of women’s podium! I’m super happy and excited to be a youth world champion for 2021!Kitesurf is a big part of my life and I am truly excited about this win. I was leading since day one, but it hasn’t been easy, Magdalena (Woyciechowska) is very fast, so I am happy I could actually finish in the first position. I want to thank everyone who believed in me, my family at home in Poland who was super excited for me, and I am glad I could make it happen for them!”
Results:
1 POL 18 Julia Damasiewicz
Words: https://formulakite.org and Julia Damasiewicz
