It would seem that Aaron Hadlow (Flexifoil, GBR) is hell bent on winning the Brazilian title of the second to the last stop of the PKRA 2008 World Tour here in Piaui, Brazil. Going into the second day of Kite-Xtreme Brasil 2008, Hadlow already is making history once again by winning his first-ever Brazilian freestyle singles title and if he makes it in the doubles event past Kevin Langeree (Naish, NED) the Chile Tour stop will be a magnificent Tour climax.

Day 2 started out like any typical Brazilian day – warm weather, perfect wind condition, and plenty of people on the beach. The sun was in full force, the sky was clear and the temperature rose to 36° Celsius during high noon while the wind maxed out at 18 knots (5 bft.) forming moderate waves for some nice kickers. The wind turned up to be offshore in the morning but went back to its usual direction, side onshore, and strength by 11:00 am.

The mandatory skippers meeting started at 11:30 am at the beach. After half an hour, the race director sounded the horn signaling the continuation of the freestyle singles event.

The competition wrapped up at 3:00 pm with the doubles elimination to be started tomorrow.

Day 2 Highlights

The ladies got the chance to start the day’s events. Opening up the action was heat #5 between Jo Wilson (Naish, GBR) and teammate Karolina Winkowska (Naish, POL). Winkowska dominated the heat with a blind judge, raley to blind, s-bend to blind, slim and raley to wrapped, winning with a higher technical score on handle passes. Wilson had an awesome heat with a raley to blind, downloop to blind, back to blind, blind judge and a high handle pass but weren’t enough to convince the judges on technical matters. In the same heat, Bruna Kajiya (Best, BRA) defeated Joanna Litwin (Nobile, POL) in a close heat which would probably count as one of the best heats we’ve seen so far from the women. Kajiya performed with more power plus slight technical advantage to take the win.

Current PKRA World #4 Angela Peral (North, ESP) defeated Susi Mai (Cabrinha, GER) in the sixth heat with a downloop to blind and raley to blind, winning with more power over Mai’s raley to blind and front to blind. Current women world title holder Gisela Pulido (Slingshot, ESP) had an easy heat against local girl Carol Homsi also in the sixth heat. Pulido then went on to defeat Peral in the semi-final to face Kajiya for the top podium spot.

As expected, Brazilian champ Bruna Kajiya dominated the 7th heat going into the finals against Winkowska with home ground advantage and got the chance to take home the trophy. Winkowska went on to defeat Peral in the loosers final with more trick variation and a higher technical difficulty score.

The final round of the women’s freestyle was a familiar sight as two of the top PKRA riders battled it out for the women’s single freestyle title and a bigger chunk of the prize money. With the home crowd cheering on her side, Kajiya went move for move, landing a blind judge, s-bend to blind, back to blind air pass, blind judge with aerial handle pass, non-inverted slim, and a 313. Pulido on the other hand, landed a front mobe, blind judge, 313, s-bend to blind, slim, back to blind air pass and mobe. Kajiya won the event with a much more significant execution, power and height advantage although Gisela had the slight advantage on trick variation.

In the 13th heat of the men’s freestyle, Tomas Texeira (RRD, BRA) defeated Ariel Corniel (EH, DOM) in a very close but 4-1 decision. The Brazilian rider won with a little more switch variation and huge kiteloop slims. Also in the same heat, Tour world title challenger Kevin Langeree (Naish, NED) knocked down a frustrated Sebastien Garat’s (RRD, FRA), ending the French rider’s chance to the podium. Garat crashed several moves, even changed his kite midway through the heat and struggled to match Langeree’s technical level, variation and power.

In the 14th heat, Alex Pastor (Naish, ESP) continued his climb up the ladder, defeating Mikael Blomvall (Nobile, SWE) with more power and height. A regular and switch mobe/slim/kgb, shifty 360, kiteloop 5, front mobe 5 and blind judge with aerial handle pass for Pastor proved enough to beat Blomvall’s regular and switch mobe/slim/kgb, blind judge with aerial handle pass, kiteloop 3 and double s-bend to blind.

Aaron Hadlow (Flexifoil, GBR) had everything under control in the same heat and was hell bent in winning the trophy, taking down Cesar Portas (North, ESP) in the same heat. Portas had one of his best heats this season but there’s just no stopping Hadlow who landed a regular and switch slim/front mobe/back to blind air pass/mobe, front mobe to blind, blind judge to blind, s-bend to blind with aerial handle pass, blind judge with air pass, shifty 3 and hasselhoff. Portas stomped his own regular and switch moves (slim/blind judge with air pass/kgb) plus a front mobe 5, mobe and blind judge 5.

In the semi-final, Langeree ended Teixera’s run in the 15th heat taking the first spot in the finals. Hadlow added Pastor to his “these guys can’t stop me” list with a showcase of kiteboarding firepower.  However, Pastor managed to recover his loss to Hadlow taking down Teixera in the battle for third place overall with more switch variation, height and a higher technical difficulty level for a 3-2 win.
 
The men’s finals was also an all too-familiar event between the top two PKRA freestylers but this round is even more exciting as Langeree is keen on winning this year’s title while Hadlow is determined to win his first-ever Brazilian title and defend his world title. A total of 17 moves for each rider summed up the heat. Langeree landed a regular and switch front mobe/kgb, 313, non-inverted slim, double back mobe, kiteloop slim, a huge kiteloop 7, back side air pass, blind judge with aerial handle pass, blind judge 5 and mobe to wrapped. Hadlow’s regular and switch mobe/slim/kgb,hasselhoff, shifty 5, slim to wrapped, s-bend to blind air pass, front mobe to blind, blind judge 5, and a mobe 7 won the heat. Overall, it was a very close heat with several double passes from both riders. Kevin’s moves were packed with a little more power and height but Hadlow had an advantage on the technical difficulty side with the switch variations and extra double pass for a 4-1 decision.

Congratulations to Aaron Hadlow and Bruna Kajiya for winning the singles freestyle event!

Tomorrow’s skippers meeting is scheduled at 11:30 am with a first possible start of 12:00 pm.

SOURCE: PKRA