Riccardo Pianosi and Jessie Kampman resisted enormous pressure in the medal series to become the 2025 Formula Kite World Champions. After a week of drama, it was a climactic finale on day six of the Formula Kite World Championships in Quartu Sant’Elena, Sardinia.

With the forecast of a building Mistral breeze, the organisers decided to start the medal series in the morning in case the Mistral became too strong and too dangerous for racing in the afternoon.

TREACHEROUS MISTRAL 

The top eight men and women went out, ready for battle against each other, and the elements - a gusting, shifty breeze bulleting out from Poetto Beach, and a few nasty waves thrown into the mix. 

Even for the very best, staying stable on the board was proving very tricky in the knock-out rounds. In the women’s quarter final, Britain’s Olympic Champion Ellie Aldridge tumbled out of contention while American six-time World Champion Daniel Moroz surged into the semi-final. In the semi-final it was Switzerland’s Elena Lengwiler who suffered an early fall, while Moroz and Britain’s Lily Young earned their place in the final.

FIERY FRENCHMAN

In the men’s knockout races, Benoit Gomez was on fire, the Frenchman blasting his way through the quarter and the semi-final and into the last four along with Olympic silver medallist Toni Vodisek from Slovenia. Now to the men’s final, where Gomez and Vodisek joined Singapore’s Max Maeder and local lad from Quartu Sant’Elena, Riccardo Pianosi in the yellow bib and holding match point advantage. 

All four were fast out of the gate and still closely matched a the top of the course until Vodisek suffered a massive wipe-out. Pianosi held a slender lead. Maeder knew he had to go full throttle to keep the game alive, pressing to more than 40 knots of speed on the downwind leg and closing the gap.

Maeder was breathing down Pianosi’s neck all the way around the next lap and right up to the finish. But the Italian withstood the pressure to cross the line victorious, punching the air as he became Formula Kite World Champion for the first time in his career. Maeder took the silver and Gomez the bronze.