By Neto Baptiste
Antigua and Barbuda kiteboard athlete Tiger Tyson continued his fine form on the International circuit with a top 12 finish at the Kite-foil World Series Open held in Cagliari, Italy over the weekend.
Tyson grabbed and overall 11th place finish from amongst 44 individual competitors after amassing a total of 235.0 points over 17 races at the International event. In the country’s column however, Antigua and Barbuda finished seventh overall as the scores for countries with multiple participants are tallied for a final country finish.
Tyson, speaking with Observer media from Italy, said the championship provided an opportunity for him to compete against a number of the top athletes from around the world going into this week’s Formula Kite World Championships also slated for Cagliari.
“There were a lot of good riders, probably most of the best riders in the world were probably here so it was really nice to line up against these guys. We did 17 races over four days and I had some really nice races and had some of my best results in this competition actually. I was racing right up there with the top 10 guys and I had some consistent races in front of guys I’ve never actually beaten before,” he said.
“Even the top guys, they noticed it and they were mentioning to me that I am pretty fast this week and that was really nice and today [Sunday] the last day, I actually managed to get a second place finish on the last race which I was really happy about,” he added.
The Antiguan said also that conditions constantly changed throughout the four days of competition which also allowed him to utilise a number of different kites.
“The week consisted of all kinds of wind conditions so we actually used all our different sizes of kites and that was really good practice just to know that all of our equipment are working and just getting us back into racing because it can be quite easy if you’re racing with some big kites the whole time in some light wind and then mall of a sudden you have a day of racing that’s maybe 30 to 40 knots and it’s a completely different game,” Tyson said.
Having competed in Italy for the past few months, Tyson’s confidence is high going into the Kite World Championships starting Tuesday.
“I’ve already competed in the location before so I know what the place is like so I am not too worried about that but maybe I will go out just to keep in the kiting mood I guess,” he said.
In late August, Tyson bagged a bronze medal finish in the French National Kite Foiling Championships. He then competed in the European Championship in Poland where he finished 23rd from amongst 150 competitors.