IKA 2020 SnowKite WorldCup kicks off in Togliatti
The first day of competition in Togliatti, Russia, kicked off today. In the morning there was some rain, but after the official beginning of the races at 11:00, the rain stopped and the sun was fighting with the clouds to manage to see the unfolding battles in the ice of the river Volga. The wind speed was almost perfect and the flat moderate terrain, allowed good speeds.
In the youth class “JKS” the first three included Nelya Ochaeva (Novosibirsk), Anna Vaskova (Nizhniy Novgorod) and Savva Kilpio (Moscow).
As the judge of the competitions Mila Polyakova said, compared to last year the level of participants in the children's class has grown significantly: “Now it’s almost a single fleet that powerfully and smoothly runs from start to finish. And the battle is unfolding almost like the adults: all leaders are very close and from the first day it’s impossible to predict who will win in this class.”
In the discipline “course race ski”, the first three places were distributed between Dmitry Yasnolobov (Kharkov, Ukraine), Mikhail Konstantinov (Moscow) and Kodanev Nikita (St. Petersburg). In the “course race snowboard” discipline, in the first place is Gennady Shelyganov (Kolomna), in the second Nikita Sokolov (St. Peterburg) and in the third Artem Renev (Yekaterinburg).
Alexey Razhev, race director of the IKA - 2020 Snowkite WorldCup, said that we were very lucky with the weather: good and flat coverage of the ice and moderate winds, allowed athletes to show their tactical qualities: “On the one hand, it was disappointing that there were a lot of conflicts and as a result a lot of protests, but on the other we can conclude that the participants were nervous, since the races starts are always exciting. In all starts, Dmitry Yasnolobov passed very confidently: he won all the races of the day. He is a strong rider, but the fact that he will not leave a chance to other riders was a surprise for us.
In the “boards” we expected a tough fight, but Gennady Shelyganov showed that he was the clear leader! We look forward to the next competition day. It will be decisive in the course race, so it will be exciting and very interesting!”
On February 28, the race starts will be held in all disciplines from 11:00.
