Brei Whitehead has continued her upward trajectory finishing sixth at the Lepanto 2022 Formula Kite Europeans in Nafpaktos, Greece.

The Townsville Yacht Club member improved on her 16th in Palma and 10th in Hyeres and has her perfectly poised for the Formula Kite World Championships scheduled to start in Italy next week.

Whitehead entered today’s Semi Finals needing two race wins to qualify for the four-rider final, with the higher-ranked Gal Zukerman (ISR) only needing the one.

Breiana Whitehead CREDIT IKA Media-Robert Hajduk

Racing got under way in a nice 16-20 knot Westerly, with the course set for two upwind-downwind laps with a quick reach leg before the finish.

The other two semi-finalists in Breiana’s group were Jingle Chen from China and another Israeli athlete, Maya Ashkenazi. Whitehead started on the pin end along with Chen and found good speed on the first upwind. After Chen crashed at the first upwind rounding, Whitehead found herself almost neck-and-neck with the two Israeli riders.

Zukerman and Ashkenazi almost immediately gybed and managed to stay lower on the downwind, with Brei following them shortly after and blasting at a top speed of over 31 knots. 

Approaching the first downwind mark Breiana’s slight speed advantage couldn’t compensate Zukerman’s better angle. Whitehead made a tight mark rounding that saw her slip past Ashkenazi for second, with Zukerman playing a good control game upwind putting Brei in her dirty air.

Both riders accelerated quickly after the second upwind rounding, with Zukerman making a crucial early gybe to separate herself from Whitehead. The moved forced the Aussie to sail too high, with Zukerman then gybing for layline and Breiana ducking behind her causing her to lose speed. Zukerman went on from there to win the race and secure a place in the Final, eliminating Whitehead and the other riders.

“With that gybe I had the decision of going ahead of her which could have ended up in a very unpleasant scenario,” said Whitehead after the race. “I was turning from a tight angle to a tight angle, and I didn’t quite get it under control very well. There was a lot happening in a short amount of time in that 7-minute race, it was so close, and everything mattered.”

Female podium CREDIT IKA Media - Robert Hajduk

There were plenty of dramatic moments on the final day, with race leaders losing control on roundings after hitting top speeds of 36 knots in tight racing.

“It’s big step forward for Brei,” said coach Shane Smith. “She has moved up to the 6th place overall in an open event (compared to 10th in Hyères in April), and while the finals did not see her improve the score, she is showing that she is moving up towards the podium.”

Max Maeder from Singapore defended his European title in the Men’s field and became the overall winner in the Open championship. Toni Vodisek (SLO) finished second and claimed the title of the European Champion as the highest finisher from a European nation. Benoit Gomez (FRA) defended his third place from last year’s event.

There was no racing for the Silver or Bronze fleets, meaning Scott Whitehead (Australian Sailing Squad) finished atop the Silver Fleet standings.

Full podium CREDIT IKA Media-Robert Hajduk

Commenting on the overall Australian Sailing Squad and Australian Sailing Future male athletes’ performance coach Shane Smith added; “The men overall, even if they’re in the Silver fleet, are all performing much better. They are very close to the point where they are threatening the Gold fleet. In fact, Scott’s performance showed that with a better qualifying series he is competitive. That’s a very big positive. I think Hector is quite happy with his results and with a bit more effort he will execute better at the Worlds. Alex had some troubles with his gear, which he is resetting for the Worlds, so we’re excited to see what happens.’

The team moves to Cagliari, Italy for another week of training before the Formula Kite World Championships start on 8th October.

Visit the event website for full results. 

Australian Sailing Squad (ASS) and Australian Sailing Futures (ASF) at the 2022 Formula Kite European Championships:

Overall results after 13 races – women (with 3 discards):

Gold fleet:
6th - Breiana Whitehead (ASS) – 4, 1, (7), 3, 5, 3, (14), 8, 9, 9, 5, 7 (12) (54 points)
24th - Jane Taylor (AUS) – (15), 12, 9, 11, 14, 7, (25 DNC), 16, (25 DNC), 25 DNC, 21, 22, 21 (157 points)

Overall results after 10 races – men (with 2 discards):

Silver fleet:
1st - Scott Whitehead (ASS) – (13), 6, 12, (12), 8, 12, 1, 2, 5, 1 (47 points)
4th - Hector Paturau (ASF) – (15), 10, (15), 6, 10, 7, 5, 3, 12, 4 (57 points)
9th - Alex Landwehr (ASF) – 4, (31 DNC), 9, 15, (19), 14, 7, 8, 15, 12 (83 points)    

Bronze fleet:
18th - Daniel Self (AUS) – 18, 24, (31 UFD), (25), 22, 25, 23, 11, 11, 13 (146 points)

By Anna Zykova/Australian Sailing Team media