An 18 year old kiteboarder on his first trip outside Vietnam has won third place in the freestyle event at the fourth round of the Kiteboarding Tour Asia (KTA) championships in Pranburi Thailand.
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| Local Mui Ne kitesurfer, Nguyen Ngoc Ven, 18, performs tricks in the KTA freestyle event in Pranburi Thailand that finished on Sunday |
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The fully sponsored third place-getter, Nguyen Duc Long, whose nickname is My, is a member of Vietnam’s KINN Pro Rider team that toured to Thailand by bus for the championship.
“I am very happy for this. I trained hard and every trick I did I knew I could land. It was actually easy because of my training. I was not nervous until the last heat,” said Long, who had never stood on the podium before Sunday night.
“It was a bit of shock to us, other riders, and spectators when My went up against Yo Pudla (Thailand), the reigning men’s Asian champ, and won,” said Anny Barlow, the team’s publicist.
In excellent kitesurfing conditions, the Turkish freestyle champion, Taner Aykurt took first place in the freestyle. In second position was Marek Jr. Rowinski from Poland, that Long had beaten in the freestyle single elimination to get into the finals but lost against later. The Asian champion Pudla came fourth.
Other KINN Pro Rider Team members Kin (Nguyen Ngoc Kim) and Nguyen Ngoc Ven were seventh and 13th respectively in the freestyle and fourth and fifth in the Twin Tip (TT) racing.
Blazej Ozog won the men’s course racing followed by Narapichit (Yo) Pudla from Thailand. Kathrin Borgwardt of Germany won the women’s course racing and came third in freestyle. Aya Oshima won the women’s TT racing, while for the men it was Ken Nacor. The winner of the women’s freestyle was Sarah Demdoum from France. Second was Oshima.
M.S