WISSA 2022 is over for this year and after one year gap, we have another set of World Champions in the Winter Windsurfing. We cannot really say the “new” champions because quite many names we already know from previous years.
But let’s start with Fun Marathon on Saturday morning.
For safety reasons, the sleds-wings and kites were racing separately this time. It was one hour race and won who sailed the longest distance. As this was just a fun event, the winners did not get named the Champions. Talking about the marathon winners, there were not much surprises: the winner in wings is Miroslav Pacold, in sleds Aleksandr Leontjevs and in kites Andrei Balyakin.
But now to the prize-giving ceremony. The mayor of the hosting city Maardu, Vladimir Arhipov said he is extremely happy to host the event of sports that was partially invented in Estonia. We have to note that the city of Maardu did really a great job helping WISSA 2022 run. The president of WISSA, Will Tuthill, thanked everyone for coming over in those complicated times.
As there were quite many subdivisions in the classes and all results are online anyway, we keep the winner listing quite short not to make you bored.
GPS speed got plenty of results for all classes this year. Even the wing class had many of them. Seems that inflatable wings have really been a “thing” to get wing class running! The conditions, especially ice conditions were not spectacular, meaning the speeds are not as fast as they ideally can be.
The fastest was, of course, a kite. Raigo Piho did 90,137 km/h. The fastest sled was Ramūnas Glizickas with 64,57 km/h and the fastest wing Jan Vales with 60,985 km/h.
The kite freestyle event was wonderful to watch. Not all the tricks came out as expected but there were some quite amazing views. We were happy to have experienced freestyle judge Denis Garashchenko to help in freestyle and kite races in general.
The ski subdivision had not enough participants to get the title for Egidijus Klimas, who won the ski freestyle. Most were with snowboards and the podium is:
1. World Champion 2022 Denis Usov
2. Raigo Piho
3. Triina Trei
Triina is also the best woman in freestyle.
Slalom races are also good to watch usually, but not maybe so much this time when the races were held on a rainy day. Also, as the ice conditions were not very suitable for slalom, it was done in just one day and it means not so many races as we in Estonia are used to.
For the wings, there were six slalom starts in two fleets. It is something that has not been happening for some time now! Also, they used skis for slalom, for the safety, but still managed to race and were happy they got the slalom done! But this is how it went:
1. World Champion Magnus Nordström
2. Miroslav Pacold
3. Kai Mäkela
The best in the inflatable wings subdivision is Kai Mäkela, the best Veteran and Grand Master is Magnus Nordström, best woman Evelina Nordstöm.
Sled slalom got some emotions up and some of the favourites decided not to take part in it, feeling it would be not safe. Of course, this is a decision everyone has to take by themselves. But others took part and we have winners:
1. World Champion Aleksandr Leontjevs
2. Robertas Berkelis
3. Arvydas Molusius
Aleksandr Leontjevs is also winner in the Grand Master subdivision. U20 winner is Kaur Säärits and U17 winner Marta Arete Sokk. The best woman in sled slalom is Liisbeth Orav.
Course racing is, of course, the most classic sailing and for all classes, we had most starts in classical course race.
Let’s start with the kites. The conditions allowed them to sail in two days only and the course was for them pretty short. Despite it, they said after the event it was still a great experience.
But here they go:
1. World Champion Nikita Kodanev
2. Pavel Kolabin
3. Andrei Balyakin
In the tube kite subdivision, the winner is Raigo Piho. The best racer with a snowboard is Nikita Sokolov, the best female snowboarder Valeria Garashchenko. For the Grand Masters, the winner is Dmitri Nikulichev and for U20 Aleksei Efermov. The best woman is Elena Kalinina.
Wings course race had after many years also some subdivisions full, also the new inflatable wing division was popular. And the winners:
1. World Champion Miroslav Pacold
2. Reima Salo
3. Jarkka Kolehmainen
The winner in the inflatable wing is Raido Ruse. In the veterans’ subdivision, Jarkka Kolehmainen was the best, in Grand Masters Miroslav Pacold. Women’s winner is Evelina Nordström.
All results can be found on our Results page.
It was decided not to give out the Best Design trophy this year. It was discussed inflatable wings are making the class popular again but those are produced by the companies and this is not really the idea of the award.
Victor Hendriksson was handed to Will Tuthill this year, for his dedicated work to keep WISSA running and get the people together. Also, he makes great posts to the WISSA Facebook page daily!