Barely a month after winning bronze at the Olympics, Singaporean Max Maeder was back to competitive kitefoiling.
He also returned to winning ways, snagging gold at the Austrian leg of the KiteFoil World Series.
The 17-year-old was racing at Austria’s Lake Traunsee on Sunday (9 Sept), the final day of the competition, according to mysailing.com.au.
The previous day (8 Sept), Maeder had won all six of his heats, giving him a commanding lead over his rivals. He was later quoted as saying:
Winning six races back to back, that definitely puts a smile on my face.
On Sunday, any hopes his rivals may have had of overtaking him were dashed when Maeder won five out of six heats.
This meant that Maeder needed to win just one race in the medal series to take gold in his first competition since the Paris Olympics.
Before that, he told the media that the medal series is “a different kind of racing”. But he would take the same approach, he said, adding:
Just try to be steady and keep on racing the same way.
So it proved when he duly took the title in his first medal series race.
Source: International Kiteboarding Association on Facebook
The only heat not won by the Singaporean was won by France’s Benoit Gomez, who ended up in third place overall.
Maeder’s training partner, Croatian Martin Dolenc, took silver.
Source: International Kiteboarding Association on Facebook
It’s worth nothing that Austrian Valentin Bontus, who beat Maeder to gold at the Olympics, failed to make the final despite sailing on his home turf.
The win was an early birthday gift for Maeder, who turns 18 on Thursday (12 Sept).
Of course, he’s known for giving Singapore a birthday gift, too, by winning Olympic bronze on this year’s National Day and becoming the Republic’s youngest Olympic medallist.
Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong congratulated him on Facebook, praising his “remarkable talent and determination”.
“Meeting him in Singapore post-Olympics, it was clear Max’s eyes were set on the next challenge, driven by an unyielding hunger to win,” the minister said.
Also read: Max Maeder & Olympic athletes cheered on by S’poreans during open-top bus celebratory parade
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Featured image adapted from International Kiteboarding Association on Facebook and on Facebook.
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