| Kite battles get serious in renowned Rio break on Day Seven |
| On Day Seven, five men’s heats of round four were completedHendrick Lopes had the highest heat score of the day – 13.86A lay day has been called for Monday |
The Copa Kitley GKA Kite-Surf World Cup in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, moved up a gear as the contest got serious with the losing athletes sent packing after tough duels in the iconic Saquarema break.
But the top seeds doing battle in the pure surfing world cup showed their class in the epic conditions of double head-high faces and 15 to 18 knots of cross offshore breezes.
Cape Verdean from Switzerland Hendrick Lopes, Canada’s Reece Myerscough and France’s Clément Roseyro went to town on the wave faces in their heats and booked places in the final sixteen.
Day seven of the competition in Rio, where the Qatar Airways GKA Kite World Tour is making it debut at the spectacular Saquarema break, looked promising with a good swell and a building cross offshore breeze.
Yet in the end the wind proved fickle, despite the waves being smaller than the “bombs” that had been so tricky on Saturday. Just five heats of round four were ticked off, though some were packed with spell-binding action.
