The 4th edition of the Mediterranean Epic
The 4-day stage race “UCI Hors Catégorie” took place in Castellón, Oropesa del Mar, Spain from 9th to 12th February 2023. Georg Egger (GER) and Louisa Daubermann (GER) rode to solo victory at the Mediterranean Epic 2023 in Castellón (ESP).
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Tamar has had a love for horses her whole life. Spending her childhood years in a busy and competitive stable yard, taught Tamar all she needed to know about running a yard of her own. Receiving tuition from one of South Africa’s top-ranking riders - Barry Taylor, Tamar opened Farnham Riding School & Livery Yard with the plan in mind to offer a top quality tuition and livery service.
Tamar is a SANEF level 2 qualified instructor and received the highly recognised qualification of FEI level 1 coach in 2011 and completed Level 2 in 2012. Tamar specialises in competitive riders and teaches with great enthusiasm, with the focus being on horse and rider being a team to achieve their personal goals. The success of Tamar’s pupils speaks for itself and her dedication and passion for the sport and her clients is obvious in the consistent results they achieve.
Tamar competes at 1m50 level and has had a very successful career. Tamar has competed in the South African Derby, as well as most World Cup Qualifier shows around South Africa, Her highlight to date is winning the very prestigious Nissan 6-Bar Event in 2014, clearing the jump at 1m77 on her pride and joy, Toko.
After taking time off from riding (She remained coaching) after a knee operation and to have her first child, she is now back in the saddle bringing on many competitive young horses. Of note are Con Alma, a 5year old Warmblood jumping in the 1,10m classes, Cosmo K, a 6 year old Warmblood jumping in the 1.20m classes, and the now infamous little thoroughbred, Outeniqua (or Pocket Rocket as he is called on the SJ Circuit) on whom Tamar competes successfully in the 1.35/1.40m classes.
Tamar is a keen and savvy business woman, very dedicated to her sport and spends hours in the saddle learning and growing with her horses. Her knowledge and enthusiasm for show jumping makes her a great ambassador for our Equi-Feeds brand.
The group that was to fight for the stage at the end consisted of Georg Egger, Martin Frey (Singer Racing Team), Martin Stosek (Canyon Northwave), Marc Stutzman (Canyon Northwave), Andreas Seewald (Canyon Northwave), Krzysztof Lukasik (JBG2 Cryospace) and Wout Alleman (Wilier-Pirelli). On the final climb, the race was blown up again by Egger's push. Only Frey and Seewald held on and it came down to a sprint of the three, which Frey won, while Egger came second and Seewald completed the all-German podium. With this result Egger took the lead and there was a radical change in the remaining top 10 places: Seewald moved up to second place, although he was already more than 3 minutes behind his compatriot.
In the women's race, the decision seemed to be in favour of Laura Daubermann (Trek Future Racing) after she had won the first two stages and had a lead of almost 7 minutes in the overall classification. But Janina Wust (Buff-Megamo) never gave up. The Swiss decided the race for herself and only Daubermann could stay with her. Not only did she miss the stage podium, but she also had to watch her lead in the overall standings shrink to just over a minute. With one stage to go, the overall standings are still completely open.
Three premieres went down in the Open Faces books: Olivia Riedl caused cheers in the snowboard women's category with two backflips in her competition run and both a double frontflip and a double backflip in men's categories showed the insane level at this 1* qualifier contest.
Snowboard Men
Sebastian Kepplinger and Philipp Lanjus ensured an Austrian double victory in the category of snowboard men. Kepplinger showed a self-confident run from start to finish and delivered many jumps. Despite a short „butt-check" after a huge 360 over the first kicker, he followed up with a backflip over the second kicker and secured first place.
Snowboard Women
With a lead of more than 10 points on the second-placed Martina Matula from Slovakia, the Austrian Olivia Riedl was able to repeat her victory from the previous year and amazed the crowd when she showed two backflips in her run. Not only did she ensure a superior victory, but is also the first woman to show a (or rather two) backflip in an Open Faces Freeride competition!
Ski Women
Local hero" Vicky Candlin was able to claim a home win after her last year's third place. Candlin did a smooth run with safe cliff drops and good speed until the finish and was rewarded for her clever choice of line.
Ski Men
As freshly crowned Vice World Champion at the Freeride Junior World Championships in Kappl almost 3 weeks ago, the German Tiemo Rolshoven, who lives in Vorarlberg, once again proved his class. He opted for a clever line which earned him a lot of points and presented his „airs" with safe technique. Garnished with a „720", he got a top score and took the lead in the field of ski men's category.
This year's schedule boasts five stops in five different countries, with two finals events and a two-run format in Fieberbrunn, where riders' top score will count towards their result. To up the pressure even more, and to reward those with the nerves – and legs – of steel, 12,500 points for first place (instead of 10,000) will again be up for grabs in the FWT finals events.
So far this season, riders in every category have shown the world why they are the best of the best, pushing the limits and each other to new extremes. The ski men's category is extremely tight, with reigning FWT World Champion, Maxime Chabloz (SUI), sitting on top just 80 points clear of rookie Max Hitzig (GER). Ludovic Guillot-Diat (FRA) and Molly Armanino (USA) in the snowboard men's and ski women's categories, respectively, have narrow leads over the rest of the field, while Katie Anderson (CAN) – snowboard women – is sitting comfortably ahead after two spectacular wins.
The journey for a later Freeride World Tour career starts with valuable points in the 1 and 2 star contests. The "bowl-like" wide face of the Wiedersberger Horn is described in the scene as the optimal terrain for fast, playful runs. In between you will always find one or the other cliff, which brings valuable points for the final result.
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Winner Women and World Champion: Mikaili Sol (BRA)
Retaining her title to become the Qatar Airways GKA Freestyle-Kite Women's World Champion 2022, Mika is a truly dominant force in the sport at the moment and now has six kiteboarding world titles. Already far enough ahead in the final to be assured of reclaiming her crown, Mika's grabbed Stalefish Slim 5 on trick six had all of her most unique traits about it – full entry and exit power, technical brilliance and style, and scored a huge 9.0 from the judges, contributing to her commanding 31.67 overall heat score.
2nd Place Women: Bruna Kajiya (BRA) and 3rd Place Women: Rita Arnaus (ESP)
1st Place Men: Gianmaria Coccoluto (ITA) demonstrated to the world at this event exactly how freestyle kiteboarding should be performed. Utilising the perfect conditions of Taiba, the Italian put on a spectacular and progressive display of riding throughout every heat and his performances included the highest heat score ever on the GKA Kite World Tour, with 38.74 points from four tricks in the quarter final. Although Maxime Chabloz came close to stealing the event win in the dying moments of the final, Gianmaria is the new and much deserving Qatar Airways GKA Freestyle-Kite Men's World Champion, having proved himself as the ultimate freestyler in the ultimate location against the ultimate field.
2nd Place Men: Maxime Chabloz (SUI), a unique multi-discipline competitor. 3rd Place Men: Erick Anderson (BRA), a local hero.
The mens final was a showdown between two of the youngest riders on tour. Our current World Champion Malo Guenole vs Chris Mac Donald. Both went trick for trick, with Chris opening with a 7.43 point Back Flip. Malo responded with an outstanding 8.63 point Front Side 7. Chris continued building scores, nailing a Front Side 7 and Front Flip, and just managed to steal the win from Mal by 0.8 points. An incredible final from two of the strongest athletes on tour.
The womens final consisted of two of our strongest riders, Nia Suardiaz and Bowien van der Linden were matched up for an intense heat. Nia achieved three solid scores and managed to gain an advantage over Bowien, allowing her to claim her first event win of the 2023 season.
The group that was to fight for the stage at the end consisted of Georg Egger, Martin Frey (Singer Racing Team), Martin Stosek (Canyon Northwave), Marc Stutzman (Canyon Northwave), Andreas Seewald (Canyon Northwave), Krzysztof Lukasik (JBG2 Cryospace) and Wout Alleman (Wilier-Pirelli). On the final climb, the race was blown up again by Egger's push. Only Frey and Seewald held on and it came down to a sprint of the three, which Frey won, while Egger came second and Seewald completed the all-German podium. With this result Egger took the lead and there was a radical change in the remaining top 10 places: Seewald moved up to second place, although he was already more than 3 minutes behind his compatriot.
In the women's race, the decision seemed to be in favour of Laura Daubermann (Trek Future Racing) after she had won the first two stages and had a lead of almost 7 minutes in the overall classification. But Janina Wust (Buff-Megamo) never gave up. The Swiss decided the race for herself and only Daubermann could stay with her. Not only did she miss the stage podium, but she also had to watch her lead in the overall standings shrink to just over a minute. With one stage to go, the overall standings are still completely open.
Making it through as top performers in the men’s division, we can’t look past the Brazilians Manoel Soares and Carlos Mario, clearly at home in these lagoon and warm wind conditions. They were the only two riders to break 30 point heat scores – with relentlessly smooth technicality. Just before the Brazilians ended the day on a high, yesterday's challenger, Gianmaria Coccoluto, held off Arthur Guillebert, Adeuri Corniel and Robin Goetebuer in his quarterfinal. Swiss star Maxime Chabloz was challenged in the quarterfinals by German Finn Flugal, who is only 13 years old. The young teenager put up an impressive fight, but failed to reach the 5.90 on his seventh and final trick attempt, which he needed to put Maxime under pressure again and secure second place.
In the women's event, Bruna Kajiya achieved the highest score of the day (22.73) and won the first round thanks to an amazingly close chance just before the end, which she somehow held on to with 7.30 points! Nathalie Lambrecht unfortunately lost to Bruna in this round, but managed to beat Alexandra Torres and Estefania Rosa in her subsequent individual round and was the second highest scorer of the day with 19.33.
The women were up first and Bruna Kajiya got the day started with her ever impressive clockwork style. But it was women’s tour leader and reigning world champion, Mikaili Sol, who hit the alarm for what was to come, opening her account with a huge stalefish slim 5 and then a 317 on trick four.
In the men's race, Manoel Soares had the chance to win his first world title. As the draw would have it, he faced second ranked rider Gianmaria Coccoluto in that quarter final, as well as Valentin Garat and a local ripper with a huge reputation, Erick Anderson. All Gianmaria Coccoluto could do at this event was keep winning his heats and hope that Soares would trip up before reaching the semi finals. Now it was in his hands, but even if he won the heat he’d need help from one of the others to push Manoel into third, and out of the competition. Coccoluto produced a performance for the ages. Attacking without fear, he ripped Taiba lagoon apart like never before. Soares led after two tricks, but started to slip as the Italian hit full beast mode, scoring two nines and then two tens in succession that sent goosebumps through the crowd and left the judges in awe. Having uncharacteristically caught a front edge on his third trick, Manoel started to look tense. He forced out a 319 and a 315 and then the backside 315 on his last trick attempt just wasn’t good enough to overtake in-form lagoon specialist, Erick Anderson, who went through to semis behind Coccoluto.
There are still three contenders for the title, but only two remain in the competition. Manoel now has to sit things out and wait to see if Gianmaria or Juan Rodriguez will win the event or not. Those two meet next in the semi-finals!
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