Breiana Whitehead has navigated a tricky fifth day at the 2022 Formula Kite World Championships to head into tomorrow’s Semi Finals in fifth place.

The weather once again put on a show for the riders in Cagliari, with the offshore breeze providing patchy and unpredictable puffs across the racecourse. The competitors had to very carefully balance their need for speed with trying to figure out where to head next on the course to find the next elusive shift.

The Race Committee snuck in four races across the day, rotating between the male and female Gold Fleets. Breiana Whitehead (Australian Sailing Squad) put together another consistent day, a good result on a day where every race was set on a new course making wind patterns extremely difficult to follow.

Whitehead finished seventh in the first race of the day after a strong start, but in the second race a sudden drop in wind pressure on the last downwind saw her drop her kite into the water as she was attempting to gybe. The crash hurt her standing in that race, as did carrying a wet kite into the next race with both results ending up as drops on her scorecard.

“The last gybe going to the finish my kite fell out of the pressure and I ended up swimming,” said Whitehead. “It was such a tricky racecourse. Everyone was everywhere, the people I was with yesterday were back with me and then off at the front. It was hard to get a race today where everything went your way.”

Australian Coach Shane Smith noted that those results count for little as the athletes head into the Semi Finals tomorrow.

“Given how strongly Breiana has been performing till this point she can drop those two races today without much concern. She goes into the Semi Finals tomorrow with a 1-win head start and a reasonable group to give herself a chance to do better than she did at the Europeans (where she finished sixth)”.

Whitehead will be facing the same scenario as two weeks ago at the European Championships, where she had to score two bullets and not let the fourth placed rider (Katie Dabson, GBR) win a race. This time Gal Zukerman (ISR), against whom Breiana raced in the European Semis, is standing behind her with the need to win three races ahead of others tomorrow.

Luckily Ellie Aldridge (GBR), who has three bullets under her belt, is into Semi Final Group 2. Poema Newland (FRA) and Gisela Pulido Borrell (ESP) who had a dramatic fight for the spot in the Final in Greece are both also in Group 2. Awaiting the winners of the Semi Finals will be five-time World Champion Daniela Moroz (USA) and recent European Champion Lauriane Nolot (FRA), who have kept first and second positions on the leaderboard throughout the whole Championship.

Whitehead is feeling confident as she looks ahead to tomorrow. “Tomorrow the conditions promise to be something I’m probably more used to, a bit more choppy and more of a sea breeze pressure, so we’ll see what happens”.

Whitehead will be looking to add to the bronze medals she won at the 2019 Formula Kite European and World Championships when she takes to the water tomorrow.

In the men’s Silver fleet there have been some ups and downs for the Australian riders. Scott Whitehead (ASS) had an unfortunate BFD in the last race after leading it from start to finish. This has caused Scott to drop to 11th after yesterday’s crash and gear damage.

Hector Paturau (Australian Sailing Futures) had a better day, showing consistent racing after race two where the breeze became a bit more predictable.

“I had some good races today,” said Paturau. “I believe I had a better tactical thinking day today, but unfortunately still crashed in the last two races. I’m happy that I still managed to be in the game, sailing in the leading pack.”

The first warning signal is scheduled for the Semi Finals at 13H00 with Livestreaming starting at 12H45 CET. Riders are expecting a potential change in wind direction which would shake things up one last time. Tune in to the IKA’s Facebook page or YouTube channel to watch the final battle.

You can follow the event via the event website: https://www.formulakite.org/

Daily results will be uploaded to the following links:

Men: https://www.formulakite.org/sailwave/liveresults_men.htmWomen: https://www.formulakite.org/sailwave/liveresults_women.htm

Australian Sailing Squad (ASS), Australian Sailing Futures (ASF) and other Australian (AUS) entries in the 2022 Formula Kite European Championships:

Female:

Gold fleet
5^th - Breiana Whitehead (ASS) – (7), 2, (11), 6, 5, 2, 4, 5, 3, 12, 7, (26 DNC), (26 RET) (53 points)

Silver fleet
11^th - Jane Taylor (AUS) – 18, (21), 21, 16, 17, (DNC 34), 15, 17, 7, 5, 3, 2, 3 (101 points)

Male – Silver fleet:
11^th - Scott Whitehead (ASS) – 11, 11, 7, (13), 10, 7, 2, 2, (DNC 31), (DNC 31), 27, 11, 7, 31 BFD (126 points)
13^th - Hector Paturau (ASF) – 13, 12, 14, 10, 16, (24), 15, 11, (24), 23, (24), 7, 6, 6 (133 points)
15^th - Zac Pullen (AUS) – 15, 14, 10, 18, (24), 14, (24), 16, 18, 13, 13, (21), 11, 5 (146 points)
23^rd - Alex Landwehr (ASF) – 15, (24), 15, 14, 14, 14, (DNC 31), 21, 20, 20, 18, 16, 14, 14 (174 points)

By Anna Zyk/Australian Sailing Team media