Egypt hosted the African Continental Kite Course Racing Championship in 7Bft Kite House in Soma Bay, Hurghada from 24-29 March with total prize money worth €20,000 euros. It was an open event race involving both speed and tactics. Board speed and tactical understanding as well as a good knowledge of the rules decided the winners. In the men's final the American Johnny Heineken came in first overall. German Florian Gruber claimed second while French Maxime Nocher finished third. In the women's finals, German Steph Bridge claimed the first overall. American Erika Heineken managed to hold second overall while Dutch Katja Roose came in third. Sixty-one men and 15 women participated including the world champion Americans Johnny Heineken and his sister Erika Heineken, Adam Koch and Brian Kender and the Polish Tomek Janiak. There were also big names from Africa competing for the continental title. Participating countries were Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Croatia, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Malaysia, The Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Tunisia, Switzerland, Spain, South Africa, Ukraine, the United States, the United Arab of Emirates and host Egypt. Egypt participated with Omar Abdel-Fattah, Mohamed Anis, Karim Shawki, Hisham Samir and Kamel Marei. Board member of the Egyptian Sailing and Water Ski Federation (ESWF) Mahmoud Abul-Saoud told Al-Ahram Weekly: “The Egyptians were not registered in the ESWF so this championship was a big challenge for them. It was the first time for them to compete in an international championship. “The ESWF's technical committee hosted a training course during this month for all beginners in preparation for the national kite boarding championship in Ras Sedr in September,” added Abul-Saoud. “The coach of the national team Mohamed Abdel-Rahman, who was the world champion in Australia in 2007, and the director of the technical committee Ahmed Abbas will lead the national team for the next three years and will represent Egypt in Rio 2016,” Abul-Saoud said. The 2013 Course Racing Championship title went to South Africans Oswald Smith and Oscar Armstrong and Egyptian Omar Abdel-Fattah. Meanwhile, the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) has decided to replace windsurfing with kite boarding at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. The decision came after an evaluation group was appointed in November 2012 to examine kite boarding formats with the board events for Rio 2016. The group recommended that kite boarding be included in the ISAF event family including the Sailing World Cup and the Sailing World Championships, but the ISAF Council went one step further and selected kite boarding for the Rio 2016 Olympic sailing competition as well.
