The African Kiteboarding Championships – Dakhla, Morocco – Day 2

Day two of the African championships saw the completion of the double elimination with stronger and gustier wind conditions than we saw yesterday.

The athletes battled through the heats, with the double elimination giving each rider a second opportunity to improve on yesterday’s performance.

Yassine Bouceta had a fantastic day, climbing up through the doubles until he came to face yesterday’s finalist Laarbi Edderkaoui. After injuring his knee yesterday, Laarbi was ready to get back into action and fight for a spot in the podium. Yassine was fired up, even after a full day of competition, and he landed a good array of tricks including a clean backside 313. Laarbi landed several good tricks of his own including a heart attack, but was being cautious on his landings due to his injury. They both fought hard for the spot but it was Yassine who took the win and advanced to the next heat. Laarbi would have to settle for a 4th place finish at this event.

Yassine’s next challenge would be to face Abdou Moutaouakil, who performed extremely well yesterday, finishing in second place. Abdou once again pulled out all the stops, timing each trick carefully to avoid the strong gusts, and landing big tricks such as his powerful backmobe. Abdou managed to advance which once again lead him to face 16 year old Jonas Ouahmid in the final.

Jonas and Abdou both opted for full power freestyle final, going for tricks such as heart attacks and backside 313s despite the difficult and strong wind conditions. It was an extremely close final, but it was young Jonas Ouahmid who managed to take the win with his well executed and powerful tricks.

“It was a hard day of competition today, with strong and gusty wind. The level was really high, and Abdou did a great job also. I’m super happy to have won this event, and I’m looking forward to doing more competitions this year on the GKA Kite World Tour.”  Jonas Ouahmid

The final results for the African Championships are:

1st – Jonas Ouahmid
2nd – Abdou Moutaouakil
3rd – Yassine Bouceta
4th  – Laarbi Edderkaoui

It has been a wonderful event here in Dakhla, Morocco, hosted by Dakhla Attitude. The GKA will be returning to this location in October 2019 for the Freestyle and Kite-surf World Cup.

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