Kitefoiling: Singapore’s Maximilian Maeder second in fleet after first seven races

MARSEILLE: Another day with light winds meant that only two kitefoiling races out of the five scheduled races were contested on Tuesday (Aug 6), with Singapore world champion Maximilian Maeder now second in the standings.
Games debutant Maeder has now accumulated 15 net points after seven races in the opening series. He trails Slovenia’s Toni Vodisek, who has 12.
Italian Riccardo Pianosi is third, with 20. Austria’s Valentin Bontus, who was originally third, dropped by one spot to fourth after he was disqualified in his sixth race.
At the Marseille Marina, Maeder had started the day top of the fleet, level on points with Vodisek and one ahead of Bontus.
But in the day’s first race, he finished 11th, while Vodisek was top. The Singaporean then finished fourth in the day’s second race, while his Slovenian rival took 12th.
There are up to 16 fleet races in the opening series for kitefoilers, before the medals are contested on Thursday.
The opening series makes use of a low-point system like sailing, where points are awarded based on an athlete’s finishing position. For example, the athlete who wins a race gets one point.
As part of the format, the worst race scores for each competitor can be discarded – depending on the number of races contested in the opening series – and the remaining score forms a competitor’s respective net points.
The overall rankings are calculated by net points.
The top two move on directly to the final, while the third to 10th kitefoilers compete in two semi-finals for the remaining final spots. The winner of each semi-final moves on.
In the final, competitors will need three race wins to secure gold.
However, the top kitefoiler from the opening series begins the final with two wins and will only need one more to take gold.
The runner-up from the opening series starts the final with one win and will need two wins to take gold, while the winning semi-finalists need all three wins.
In May, Maeder successfully defended his kitefoiling world title. Last August, the kitefoiler clinched gold in the men’s kite event at the Sailing World Championships in the Netherlands.
Prior to the Olympics, the Asian Games gold medallist won five events in a row, with the youngster winning the men’s title at the Formula Kite European Championships in March.
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