SINGAPORE: Fresh from his Paris Olympics win, Singaporean kitesurfer Max Maeder won 11 out of 12 races at the Austrian leg of the IKA KiteFoil World Series. He won six out of six games on the first day and five out of six on the second day of the event.
Because of his stellar performance, Maeder walked away with the championship at Lake Traunsee on Sunday (Sept 8), where the event was held.
While Croatia’s Martin Dolenc, Maeder’s training partner, went on to take the silver, and France’s Benoit Gomez, who took the bronze, put up valiant efforts, the Singaporean athlete led from the very beginning.
Austria’s Valentin Bontus, who took home the gold at the Olympics, also competed at Lake Traunsee.
As Sail World put it, “Maeder is back in invincible mode” after taking a short break after coming home from Paris.
As a gift to the country on National Day, Maeder clinched the bronze medal for the Men’s Formula Kite event at the Paris Olympics on Aug 9. He turns 18 on Sept 12 and is Singapore’s youngest Olympic medallist to date.
He took 25 days off after bagging the bronze and told Sail World he feels refreshed by his brief hiatus. Maeder said it was good to be back to competing, but for now, he’s looking forward to celebrating his 18th birthday with his family and friends.
He was also pleased to be using new equipment at Lake Traunsee. For the first time at such a high-level competition, Maeder was using a smaller 21 sqm Flysurfer V3 kite as well as the R6 edition of the Levitaz foil and mast combination.
“Other people might still pick the older gear, but I really like using the new gear. It just feels more efficient, even if the new kite is smaller.
And you have more modes for going high or low at different points on the race course, and overall, I would say the average VMG speeds with the new kite and foil are going to be slightly higher,” he was quoted as saying.
Next up for Maeder will be the Asian Championships in Daishan, China, on Sept 18, where he’ll be up against defending champion and home favourite Qibin Huang.
Maeder, the oldest of three brothers, started kiteboarding at the age of six and took up kitefoiling when he was just 10 years old. In 2018, he won his first competitive tournament in the Formula Kite Asian Championships. /TISG