Sardinia Kiteboard Grand Slam, Nolot and Pianosi set the pace into Sunday's showdown
Lauriane Nolot and Riccardo Pianosi are looking very hard to beat. After another strong day on the water in Quartu Sant’Elena for the leading women and men at the Sardinia Kiteboard Grand Slam, both riders have earned the right to go straight through to Sunday afternoon's four-rider final.
Even so, the jeopardy of the final series means both will still have to be at their best to take the overall title in the Bay of Angels. This is the last major international event of the Formula Kite season, and a final opportunity to check in on speed, fitness and tactical ability before the new season kicks off with the World Championships in Brazil in January.
Nolot recovers from a shaky start
In the women's racing, Switzerland's Elena Lengwiler stretched out to an early lead and took the winner's gun. Nolot, meanwhile, had struggled in the early stages of the race, explaining that she had run into massive gusts on the left-hand side of the racecourse.
"I was racing with the 15 [square metre kite] and it was, wow, just so crazy, too strong," said the French rider. "I lost control for a moment and then I had a lot of catching up to do."
And a lot of catching up she managed. The Olympic silver medallist from Paris 2024 carved through the fleet and snatched second place from Britain’s Lily Young at the final turning mark, where Nolot executed the tighter gybing manoeuvre.
Second was not too bad considering a poor start, and Nolot made no such mistakes in the next two races, winning both quite comfortably. She tops qualifying by a big margin over her training partner Lysa Caval, who takes the other automatic spot in Sunday's four-rider final.
Elena Lengwiler from Switzerland finally managed to shake off some UFD disqualification scores from her ranking and moves up to third overall, but will have to fight her way through the semi-final to earn a shot against the front-runners in the final.
Bontus breaks his duck as Pianosi reigns supreme
In the men's fleet, Olympic champion Valentin Bontus of Austria took his first race win of what has been a difficult week. The Austrian has struggled to show his best form, and a crash in a gybe in the final race dropped him to 13th in that heat. Not his best way to end the day, although Bontus holds fourth on the leaderboard, behind Great Britain's Sam Dickinson in third. Only the top two go straight through to Sunday afternoon's final: Czech rider Vojtech Koska and Italy’s Riccardo Pianosi.
The local rider from Sardinia continues to reign supreme. Apart from finishing second to Bontus in the middle of the day's three races, Pianosi won the other two, and on the slingshot bear-away at the windward mark in Race 13 he hit a top speed of 40.2 knots. For most mortals, travelling at such a pace above the water on a one-metre hoverboard would be terrifying. For Pianosi and his fellow Olympic competitors, it's business as usual.
For most of the three-race session, the 20-knot breeze rewarded those who sailed all the way into the left-hand side of the racecourse, which meant a port-tack start wasn't really a strong option. In the final race, however, Noah Runciman of the USA tacked out early to the right, led around the top mark and stayed in front for most of the first run towards the bottom of the course. By the end of the first lap, though, Pianosi had reeled in the American and went on to sail away to an easy victory. Even so, it was a strong performance from Runciman, and an encouraging sign of his progress towards representing the USA at a home Games, Los Angeles 2028, in less than two years’ time.