Sardinia Kiteboard Grand Slam, Pianosi wins on home water as Nolot completes a golden season
Lauriane Nolot of France and Riccardo Pianosi of Italy are the champions of Poetto Beach after the two riders put in a dominant final-day performance at the Sardinia Kiteboard Grand Slam.
After four days of qualifying, the Sardinia Kiteboard Grand Slam came down to a series of knockout finals. The offshore Mistral breeze was again blowing hard, between 18 and 23 knots from the north-west.
In the women's fleet, the two French riders, Lauriane Nolot and her training partner Lysa Caval, had already booked their places in the Grand Final, as had local Sardinian rider Riccardo Pianosi and Vojtech Koska of the Czech Republic in the men's. It was now up to the rest of the top ten to fight for the remaining spots.
Three out at the start
In the women's quarter-final, the five riders approached the line a little too soon, each jostling for position. Although they didn't know it at the time, three of them were immediately disqualified under the U flag rule for crossing the start line early: AIN athlete Svetlana Trusova and the Italian pair Tiana Laporte and Maddalena Maria Spanu.
That left Great Britain's Ella Geiger and Katie Dabson as effectively the only two riders still in contention, although they wouldn't know they had progressed until all five had crossed the finish. Trusova won the race on the water, only to discover afterwards that she had been disqualified at the start.
Geiger and Dabson moved on to the semi-final, where they faced three more contenders: Switzerland's Elena Lengwiler, Israel's Maya Ashkenazi and Britain's Lily Young. The race was peppered with errors as riders struggled to stay on the foil in the gusty, choppy conditions. Lengwiler, arguably the favourite, lost out when she crashed off the foil in a gybe, and Young suffered a similar fate while leading towards the bottom of the course. That cleared the way for Ashkenazi and Geiger to claim their places in the final.
Nolot never challenged
Perhaps Ashkenazi and Geiger realised they would have to try something different to beat the two French riders. Both started on port tack and headed for the right-hand side, and tactically it looked like the right decision. But Nolot's pure speed and power were too much to overcome. The French rider tacked into the lead at the top mark and was never challenged from there, winning the only race of the final and adding the Sardinia title to a season that has already brought her the European and World titles. Caval took second overall, with Ashkenazi third.
Runciman backs the right again
In the men's quarter-final, Italy's Flavio Marx and Israel's Zohar Haruvi qualified for the semi-final.
Just as he had done the previous day, Noah Runciman of the USA started on port tack, betting on a good shift on the right-hand side of the racecourse. It proved to be the correct tactical call. The American led at the first mark and left the others to battle for the remaining place. Olympic champion Valentin Bontus had his moments, but a badly judged, early layline call at the bottom of the course saw the Austrian almost fall off the foil and lose valuable ground. Runciman was comfortably first across the line, with Marx grabbing the second spot in the Grand Final.
Pianosi recovers from temporary disaster
For the three challengers, Pianosi could not be allowed to win the first race. Koska, however, misjudged his approach at the start, tacking from port onto starboard a fraction too soon and crossing the line early. With the Czech rider already disqualified, it became a three-horse race, and all three blasted out to the right. This was no longer Runciman's lonely side of the course; everybody wanted a piece of it.
Pianosi's superior speed carried him into the lead, and it looked set to be a straightforward win for the local sailor. But he fluffed a tack on the second upwind leg, splashing down and opening the door for Runciman and Marx to come foiling past. Runciman led down the final run, and it was Pianosi, in third, who was first to gybe for the finish. Surely he had gone too soon, just as Bontus had in the semi-final?
Marx gybed next and Runciman later still. But when Pianosi proved he could reach the mark without any extra manoeuvres, his two rivals must have realised they had travelled too much extra unnecessary metres. Narrowly in front of the American, Pianosi surged across the line and punched the air in celebration.
It was game, set and match to the Sardinian. Koska took second, despite his costly start, thanks to the Czech rider's stronger qualifying scores earlier in the week, with a jubilant Marx third to give Italy two of the three podium places. Runciman, the All American hero of the port-tack starts, had to settle for fourth.
Next stop: Brazil
For the tenth year in a row, Poetto Beach has proved itself one of the finest kiteboard racing venues in the world, and the fleet will doubtless be back again next October. Attention now turns to the World Championships in Fortaleza, Brazil, in January 2027, where eight nation places for the Los Angeles Olympic Games will be up for grabs. The stakes are getting higher as LA 2028 draws closer.